Stowaway
by MegElemental
Summary: A strange blue box crash-lands in Hogwarts, along with the Doctor and an unexpected passenger... AU of the sixth book.
1. Crash Landing

A/N: This is my first ever story with more than one chapter. It's also on HPFF, so some may recognise it. Enjoy!

***

The TARDIS whined and groaned, throwing the Doctor on the floor.

'Ouch!'

He pulled himself up using the control panel, and whacked a couple of things with a hammer. The electrics were going haywire, and nothing was working properly.

'We must be in a place where there is a strong pulse of energy, which makes electricity go completely loopy…' the Doctor stopped talking, and looked around at the empty TARDIS.

'Oh.' He no longer had a companion. Before the sense of loneliness overtook him, the Doctor distracted himself by banging a few more dodgy buttons. Then the TARDIS suddenly lurched, and stopped.

'What?' The TARDIS was completely still. Picking himself up, the Doctor loped over to the door, and peeked outside. He was expecting to be in some kind of war zone, with high levels of energy, which could have interfered with the TARDIS's circuits. What he didn't expect to see was a corridor that belonged in an old, medieval castle, most probably in Scotland.

Slipping out the doors, the Doctor strolled down the empty corridor, his hands in the pockets of his coat. He pricked his ears up slightly, and heard voices reverberating down the empty place. He drew closer to the wall, in a half-hearted attempt to hide.

'Really, Ronald, I don't know why you don't do your homework when you have time, rather then leaving it to the last minute.' An annoyed voice, belonging to a girl, echoed down the corridor.

'I was busy 'Mione, Harry was holding a lot of Quidditch practices, and I really needed to practice…' protested 'Ronald'.

'McGonagall's going to absolutely murder you, it was late to start with, and she gave you another weekend, because you told her you got caught up with prefect duties…'

'You really are in for it, mate,' said another boy's voice.

The Doctor decided they were no threat and stepped out from the shadows into the middle of the corridor. The three teenagers, about 16-17 years old, were very surprised. The girl dropped the books she was holding, and shrieked, the boy with ginger hair jumped backwards and the black-haired boy drew a long, thin stick of wood and pointed it threateningly at the Doctor.

'Whoa, hold your horses.' He held up his hands to show he was unarmed. Now all three had their sticks trained on him.

'Who the bloody hell are you?' asked the ginger boy.

'Ronald!' hissed the girl.

'Well, Ronald,' grinned the Doctor, 'I've got some questions too. Why is there, for example, a strong energy pulse around here, which is stopping my magnificent, and very high-tech, spaceship from working?' They gaped at him.

'Spaceship!' squeaked the girl.

'Yup.'

'Ecletricity doesn't work here,' said Ronald.

'And where might 'here' be?' asked the Doctor.

'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,' said the black-haired boy, who had so far remained quiet, and the Doctor had a distinct feeling he was being analysed.

'No! Never, this can't be Hogwarts!' said the Doctor, incredulously.

'Well, it is,' snapped the girl. The Doctor suddenly knew who they were, and he glanced at the black-haired boy, catching sight of a lightening scar before the boy shifted uncomfortably and his hair covered it.

'My name's the Doctor,' he said, holding out his hand for them to shake. The girl took it.

'I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter,' she said, shaking his hand.

'Why are you here?' asked Ron.

'I didn't mean to end up here. I must have got too near, and the pulse made the circuits stop working, so the TARDIS just cut out. The TARDIS is my ship, by the way,' said the Doctor, seeing the bemused faces. He patted the blue box. They all started, as though the TARDIS had just appeared out of thin air. Which to them, it had, thanks to the perception filter. The Doctor grimaced. The filter would most probably leak to the surrounding area, so anyone standing in that particular part of the corridor may suddenly find themselves ignored for a while after the TARDIS left. If it ever did leave…

'We'll take you to Professor Dumbledore, he'll know what to do,' said Ron.

'No, he's not here. I tried to see him yesterday, but McGonagall told me he's gone and isn't coming back until Sunday,' said Harry.

'We could go and see Professor McGonagall, I suppose,' said Hermione thoughtfully. Then Ron's stomach rumbled.

'Maybe we should go to breakfast first,' he said.

'Good idea, we'll be able to think better after food,' said the Doctor. Ron nodded approvingly while Hermione rolled her eyes at him.

'And we've got Transfiguration first thing, so we can talk to her then, and with this distracting her, she might forget about my late essay,' he said.

'Yeah, right Ron,' snorted Harry, 'she'll never forget that in a thousand blue moons.'

'It's worth a try,' Ron said, his smile only slightly wavering.

They walked down to the Great Hall. The Doctor hesitated at the doors.

'I don't think I should just walk in, I might cause a bit of a stir.'

'Kitchens it is, then,' said Harry, and they turned back, bumping into a small, flustered red-head.

'Oh, hi Ginny,' said Hermione. Ron grunted and Harry went slightly red.

'Hello, I'm the Doctor,' he grinned. She looked up at him, confused.

'Wha…'

'Never mind Ginny, just move, we have to go before people see…' said Ron, looking around shiftily. Ginny looked murderous.

'Why are you always trying to leave me out, Ron? I'm not a baby; I'm only one year younger than you! Why shouldn't I be told what's going on, and why there's a strange man in Hogwarts?'

'Well said,' said the Doctor, and then, 'Do I really look strange?' They ignored him.

'We don't know who he is, but he's stuck here, and Ron's hungry, so we're going to the kitchens,' said Harry.

'Ok…' she said slowly. 'I'll come with you then, I don't really want to face Dean at the moment.'

'Who's Dean?' asked the Doctor. He was ignored again.

'Really? Why?' asked Harry, trying to look casual.

'I'm a bit pissed off at him at the moment, and no, Ronald, I'm not going to tell you why,' she rounded on Ron, who had begun to open his mouth.

'Are you two related?' asked the Doctor.

'Unfortunately, yes,' spat Ginny.

'Anyway…' said Hermione, 'Aren't we supposed to be going to the Kitchens?'

'Oh, yeah.' They made their way across the Entrance Hall, the Doctor trying to look inconspicuous, and failing miserably.

'We should really get you some robes, if you're going to be stuck here for a while,' sighed Hermione. 'You can't go around in that get-up.'

'I rather like my coat, thanks.'

'Yes, it's lovely, but this is a wizard school, and most people wear cloaks and robes. You look like a muggle.'

'Are you? A muggle, I mean,' Ginny asked.

'Well, I…'

'If you were a wizard, wouldn't you have been sent a letter when you were eleven?' asked Ron.

'When I was eleven, which was a very long time ago…'

'It can't have been that long ag…'

'I wasn't on this planet. I'm from Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords, and I'm 900 years old.'


	2. Stowaway

**A/N: Ok, people, second chapter!!! Enjoy and review!! Oh, and the rating is high because of some violence and death later on.**

The first thing she was aware of was the steady thumping of her heart. Then she felt the cold steel her arm was against, and the wire mesh she was crouched on. Opening her eyes, she saw, for the first time, her sanctuary.

_**Flashback**_

_Walking down the street, coming back from the shopping centre, she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Her breath came out in icy sheets as she picked up her pace, unable to see very far behind her thanks to the thick December fog. _

'_Hello darlin',' called out a voice behind her, and raucous laughter followed. She sped up, but she knew she was in trouble. Glancing behind her, she saw the lit ends of cigarettes through the fog. So there was more than one of them. She realized they must have come out of the pub when she passed it. She cursed herself for leaving it so late to go home, and for not charging her phone up._

'_Aren't going to stop and talk to us, eh?' The voice came again, followed once more by cackles. Then someone grabbed her arm. She shrieked, and hit the offender over the head with her bag._

'_Now now, play nice.' _

_She felt herself fall, and soon she was face down on the damp grass beside the pavement, mud in her mouth, terror coursing through her. There was someone sitting on her back and her legs, forcing her into the ground. Turning her head to the side, she saw a cigarette put down near her face. Wrenching an arm free, she managed to pick it up, and press it onto the arm of the person on top of her. _

'_She burnt me!' They swore and the pressure on her bag and legs lifted._

_She got up, hit the other over the head with her bag, and ran for it._

_Soon her legs were aching and her breath laboured, but she couldn't stop. She could hear their footsteps behind her, and she knew she had to hide. Suddenly, she tripped, and fell on something sharp. Her jeans ripped and she felt a sharp pain in her leg, but she struggled back to her feet and kept on going. _

_Doors! There was a strange box on the side of the street. She opened the door, and flung herself inside. Shutting it behind her, she hid in a dark corner, so scared and in so much pain she spared no glance for her surroundings. Crouching down, she succumbed to the pain, and everything went black._

_**Ends Flashback**_

She tried to forget what had happened, but that was ridiculously easy once she saw where she was. The box hadn't looked this big from the outside…

Getting up from the dark corner she had hidden in, she gasped and sat down again quickly. Her leg hurt badly, and when she put her hand over the slash in her jeans, she felt something warm and wet. Blood. Gritting her teeth, she undid her belt, and wrapped it around her thigh, above the cut, and tightened it, to stop herself losing too much blood. As soon as she got out of there, she needed to find a Doctor.

She walked over to the main pillar in the middle, and stared in wonder at the lights flickering on it. For some reason, though, it didn't look very healthy. The lights were pale and weak, and strange groaning noises came from under the panels.

Looking over her shoulder, she saw two doors. Sighing with relief, she went over to them and opened them. Only to shut them almost straight away. The box had _moved._ It was no longer on a foggy street in Egham, but in a corridor that belonged in a castle. She looked wildly around for another door, and saw one at the other end of the mesh platform. Running over to it, she flung it open, but there was just a corridor, with the same mesh floor as in the main place, and lots of rooms. And she distinctly remembered running straight into the main control room. At least, that was what she thought it was.

Swallowing the urge to break down into tears, the girl decided to have a little explore. The box can't have moved that far, could it? It would also keep her mind off the fact she was lost, with no battery on her mobile phone. Not that she liked her home much. She hadn't liked her house since her parents died in the car crash. She lived with her Aunt, who hated her. Her life had been bearable 'till about a year ago, when her loving Uncle Henry had died of a heart attack. Then she'd been left on her own with her Aunt Millicent, or malice, as she liked to call her.

A throb from her leg reminded her of her predicament, and she slipped out the doors…

****

'What… you're an alien?' squeaked Ginny.

'Yeah.'

'You look very human to me,' said Hermione, looking at the Doctor unbelievingly.

'Nope, two hearts,' he said.

'Cool,' said Ron. Harry just looked awkward. There was a silence.

'Soooooo… you might be a wizard then?' said Ginny. The others looked at her, glad at the subject change.

'I might be,' he raised an eyebrow.

'Are we going to the kitchens or not?' asked Ron, grumpily.

'Honestly, Ronald, your stomach is not the most important thing at the moment,' snapped Hermione. They bickered all the way to the kitchens, before the house elves supplied them with enough food to keep his mouth busy.

'Can we see your spaceship? I don't remember seeing anything but a funny blue box when we bumped into you,' said Hermione.

'I need to go back to the TARDIS anyway. I'll run a few tests, but I doubt it'll work on the Hogwarts grounds.'

'It won't. Nothing electrical works here,' said Ginny.

'We've already told him that,' said Ron round a mouthful of chocolate éclair. The girls looked at him disgustedly.

'I don't know how you can eat chocolate for breakfast, Ron,' said Ginny wrinkling her nose. Harry grinned.

'What does the name TARDIS mean anyway?' he asked.

'TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space,' said the Doctor.

'What… so it's a time machine as well?' asked Hermione, amazed. The others just looked confused. The Doctor was pleasantly surprised.

'You're really clever, for a human. Didn't I say it was magnificent and high-tech?' he asked, grinning cheekily.

'I'll take that as a compliment,' said Hermione.

They reached the TARDIS, and they didn't look impressed.

'This is a time machine?' asked Ginny.

'And a spaceship?' asked Harry.

'It doesn't look like it could get off the ground without a strong levitating charm,' snorted Hermione.

'Oi, don't knock my spaceship,' said the Doctor. He was about to open the door, when it opened by itself, and a girl came out.

'What the…' the Doctor said. She looked pale and drawn, with her dark hair hanging matted around her face, her black skinny jeans and once-nice top splattered with mud and what looked like blood. She walked straight into the Doctor, fell back against the TARDIS, and hit her leg. Her face went, if possible, whiter, and a gasp of pain escaped her mouth. She fell back, unconscious. The Doctor caught her before she hit the floor.

'Hello, you weren't in there before.' He laid her down on the floor. 'Does she go to this school?' Hermione, who had her hands over her mouth, shook her head. Harry joined the Doctor on the floor by the girl's head.

'She looks about our age, but she's not wearing robes, and I don't remember seeing her before. I wonder who she is.'

'She must be a stow-away. Well, she's stuck here with me until we figure out a way to get the TARDIS out of the energy field.' Hermione joined them on the floor.

'We need to get her to Madam Pomfrey,' she said.

'You're a Doctor, aren't you? What's the matter with her?' asked Ginny, crouching next to Harry, who blushed again. This did not escape the Doctor, but he needed to focus on the girl. He whipped out his sonic screwdriver.

'What's that?' asked Hermione, as he waved it along the girl's body.

'Screwdriver,' he grunted, as he concentrated on the readings. 'Whoa, what happened to you?'

**A/N: Evil cliffie!!! You have to review now!!**


	3. Awakening

**A/N: Third Chapter. Enjoy, and review!!**

'What's the matter with her?' asked Ginny.

'She has severe shock and some signs of trauma, a deep cut on her thigh and bruising around her right wrist and waist. It looks like she was attacked,' said the Doctor. 'Can you help me get her into the TARDIS?' He undid the belt she'd fastened around her leg, and picked her up.

'Sure.' Ron and Harry helped the Doctor half-carry, half-drag her into the TARDIS, with Ginny and Hermione hovering behind them nervously.

'Oh, hurry up, the bell's going to ring soon, and everyone will come out of breakfast,' worried Hermione. They were soon all in the TARDIS, and the teenagers gazed around them in awe.

'Wow,' said Ginny.

'Cool,' said Ron, 'It looks a lot more spaceship-y inside than it does out.' The Doctor ignored them, and laid the girl down on the mesh.

'We need to get a better look at that cut,' said the Doctor.

'Here, let me,' said Ginny, pointing her wand at the girl's leg. '_Diffindo_.' She cut the jeans off just above the cut. They all winced at the sight of the dirty cut that was clear against her pale skin.

'Could someone go get some robes for her? And me,' asked the Doctor. 'She can't wear these clothes, they're ruined.'

'I'll go get some,' said Harry, 'I'll use the invisibility cloak.' He walked out the TARDIS. The Doctor took off his coat and put it under the girl's head, before going over to a dark corner of the TARDIS, where he found a black coat, which must've belonged to the girl. Hermione started to clean the cut, and conjured up a clean white bandage. The Doctor chucked the coat at Ginny.

'You couldn't go through the pockets, and try and find out who she is, could you?' Ginny obliged. Ron looked around helplessly. 'Oi, you, who's in charge here, again?' asked the Doctor, pointing at him.

'Professor Dumbledore,' said Ron. 'We should probably go to him. He might know what to do.'

'Well, even if I get the TARDIS out of the energy pulse's range, it'll take at least a month to get back to normal. Flying into this pulse has really jogged its sockets, everything's gone barmy,' he said, gesturing to the flickering lights.

'You could trust him not to tell the Ministry of Magic. Or anyone else.'

'Well, when she,' he jerked his thumb at the comatose girl on the floor; 'wakes up, we should go and talk with old Albus.' Just then the TARDIS door creaked open and Harry came in, taking off the invisibility cloak and clutching sets of robes.

'I took Gryffindor robes for her, even though I didn't know what house she's in. It's easier. I got teachers robes for you. If they don't fit, we can resize them with magic.' Harry gave the larger set of robes to the Doctor, who bounded off to change. Harry went over to sit next to Ginny, who was rummaging in the girl's coat pockets.

'Find anything?' Harry asked Ginny.

'She has a muggle cell phone thingy, but it won't turn on, and a receipt, but apart from that, nothing special,' she said, and put the items back in the coat pockets. It was quiet for a while.

Ron suddenly had a disturbing thought. How did the Doctor know Professor Dumbledore's first name was Albus?

'Hey, guys…' but before he could ask them what they thought of it, the girl stirred.

'Merlin, she's waking up!' They all gathered round her.

'DOCTOR! SHE'S WAKING UP!' bellowed Ginny. The Doctor came rushing in.

'What? Oh, good.' He ran over and knelt down beside her head, just as she opened her eyes.

'Wha... whoa, head rush,' the girl said, as she tried to get up. 'Who are all you people?' she asked. She sat up slowly, and felt her thigh, wincing slightly, but surprised when she felt the bandage.

'Here's your belt,' said the Doctor, handing it to her.

'Oh, thanks,' she said, taking it from him. 'Sorry about that, but it hurt like hell, and I couldn't think of anything else to d… what the hell have you done to my jeans?' she yelped.

'Oh, yeah, sorry,' said the Doctor. 'We had to look at your cut.'

'Damn, they were my favourite,' she sighed.

'What's your name?' asked Hermione.

'Bree,' said the girl (A/N: Who shall now be referred to as Bree, rather than the girl, which you are probably sick of. I know I am).

'So, Bree, how did you end up in the TARDIS?' asked the Doctor, cheerfully, standing up and offering Bree a hand to help her up. She took it, and stood.

'I was being chased…' she tailed off, and shuddered. 'Anyway, the box, or TARDIS, whatever this thing…'

'This thing!' yelped the Doctor.

'Is,' said Bree, ignoring him, 'moved! Not that I'm in a particular hurry to get home, but anyway… have you got anything else I could wear? I feel a bit strange with half my jeans missing.' Harry handed her the robes, which she pulled over her head. 'Thanks.'

'Well now we need to go and see Professor Dumbledore,' said Harry, 'He'll know what to do.' Everyone agreed, even Bree, although she had no idea who this 'Dumbledore' was. Then Hermione shrieked.

'Oh merlin! Transfiguration started ages ago! Professor McGonagall's going to kill us!'

'Don't worry, Dumbledore'll sort us out,' reasoned Ron, putting an arm around her shoulders. With Hermione placated, they all trouped out the TARDIS, and waited for the Doctor to lock it.

'So, what're all your names? You know mine, after all.'

'I'm Ginny, this is Harry,' she patted him on the shoulder, making him blush yet again that day, which was very unusual for him, 'Hermione, my gormless brother Ron, and this is the Doctor, who we've only just met.'

'Hello,' waved the Doctor. Then Harry smacked himself on the head. Everyone looked at him strangely.

'We've all forgotten! Dumbledore's not here, remember?' Everyone groaned in unison.

'Going to his office to check wouldn't hurt though, would it?' asked Ron, hopefully.

'We could send a message with Fawkes!' said Ginny, excitedly.

'Fawkes?' asked Bree.

'A phoenix,' the Doctor explained.

'Ahh,' she said, 'I see.' Even though she didn't.

'Might as well, I suppose,' said Hermione, 'I don't fancy bursting into the Transfiguration classroom with these two,' she gestured to the Doctor and Bree, 'half an hour late. McGonagall might just fry us alive.' They continued to Dumbledore's office.

They reached the gargoyle, and Hermione looked annoyed.

'Oh no, we don't know the password…'

'Fizzing Whizzbees,' said Harry, and the gargoyle jumped aside.

'Nice one, Harry,' said Ron appreciatively, as they stepped onto the moving staircase.

'This is like an escalator,' said Bree. Ron looked confused, and was about to ask what an escalator was when they reached the landing. Harry immediately jumped off and strode over to the door to the headmaster's office. Without knocking first, he opened it and walked inside. Ron and Hermione looked nervously at each other, not quite at ease with just walking into Dumbledore's office. The Doctor looked around interestedly as he entered, as did Bree.

'Oh. Hello, Professor,' said Harry, startled, seeing the old man sitting in his chair behind his desk. Harry stopped abruptly, causing a comical pile-up behind him. Ginny, who had been behind him, bumped into his back, but was unable to move away due to Hermione behind her, who was walked into by Ron, followed by the Doctor. The only one to escape the jam was Bree, who nimbly jumped to the side, and she creased up at the sight, as they all ended up on the floor.

Fawkes, who was on his perch by Dumbledore's desk, suddenly took flight, and soared over to Bree's shoulder. Her eyes were wide in wonder as she stroked the beautiful bird.

'Ouch,' said a very grumpy-looking Ron, who got up, groaning. Dumbledore smiled at the scene before him.

'So what are you here for, Harry? Apart from keeping me amused, of course,' he chuckled.

'Sorry about barging in sir, but I thought you were away,' said Harry.

'Well, I was, but I came back,' said Dumbledore. Bree giggled. The Doctor glanced at her, amused, before offering his hand to Dumbledore.

'Hello, Albus,' he said.

'Hello, Doctor. I was wondering when I would see you again,' Dumbledore smiled, and took his hand.

'I have a bit of a problem, you see. The TARDIS crash-landed, and I need help getting it out of the energy pulse, and somewhere to stay while it recuperates. Oh, and Bree came along by mistake, so she's stuck here too.' Harry, Ron and Hermione watched this exchange with open mouths.

'What…you know him?' asked Harry, flabbergasted.

'We've met before,' said Dumbledore, 'there was a slight issue with the Time turners, and the Doctor had to help us out.'

'You shouldn't have meddled with time,' said the Doctor, sternly.

'We all learn from our mistakes,' sighed Dumbledore. 'Anyway, now it is my turn to help you. You can stay at the school while you wait for the TARDIS to recharge. You can teach any subject you're most comfortable with. Bree can stay on as a student…'

'But what if they're muggles?' asked Hermione. She then fell back, and bit her lip. 'Sorry, sir.'

'No no, it's a valid point, but I know from past experience that the Doctor, due to his alien roots, has a magical core, even if it is slightly different from our own, and a muggle would not be able to see Fawkes,' Dumbledore nodded towards Bree, who was laughing as Fawkes nuzzled her neck. She stopped abruptly, when she realized they were all looking at her.

'What?'


	4. Out of Time

**A/N: Fourth Chapter. Wow, this is getting long. I'm up to chapter 12 and it still isn't even near the end. Read and review, please!**

'You still have your wand, I presume?' Dumbledore asked the Doctor.

'Yup,' he said, drawing it from his pocket. Bree looked worried.

'Um, I don't have one of those things, is that a problem?' she asked Dumbledore, unsure how to address him.

'Fawkes will make you one,' he said, and gestured to Fawkes, who disappeared in a flash of flames. 'You also need to be sorted into a house. There are four houses in this school, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each are special and unique in their own way,' Ron snorted, but Dumbledore ignored him, 'and you are put into them, depending on your personality, or traits.' He passed Bree the sorting hat. She looked at it, confused.

'Put it on,' said Ginny, helpfully. Bree gingerly put it on her head, because it looked like it was about to fall apart.

_**Hello, you must be new.**_

Bree jumped.

_Are you the hat?_

_**Yes.**_

_So you decide which house I'm in?_

_**Yes, that is correct.**_

_Can I go in the one the others are in? So I know someone?_

_**Gryffindor? Well, you would fit in that house, however you are almost too clever, maybe Ravenclaw… but yes, I suppose Gryffindor would be best. GRYFFINDOR!**_

The hat shouted the last word to the rest of the office, and Bree removed the hat. The others were smiling at her.

'That's great!' smiled Ginny.

'I knew she was a Gryffindor,' said Harry, also smiling.

'HAH! Take that, Slytherin!' said Ron triumphantly, punching the air.

Dumbledore smiled and Fawkes arrived with another flash of flames. He dropped a thin stick of wood on his desk.

'Ah. Oak, 14 inches, with a… an unidentifiable core. This is your wand. Doctor, what subject would you like to teach?'

'Would a muggle subject be OK? I'm most comfortable with Science.'

'Yes, that would be great, 'cause then I'll know something,' said Bree, 'I love science, 'specially physics.' Ron looked confused, and Harry looked worried.

'You do? Great!' said the Doctor.

'As for books and clothes for Bree and textbooks for you, Doctor, I'm sure the room of Requirement will provide the necessary things. You can have classroom D, which has an office and lodgings. Bree, an extra bed will be added in the girls dormitory.'

'Hang on a minute. I still don't get why I have to stay here. Can't I just go home another way?' She asked, confused. Dumbledore ignored her and pressed on.

'How old are you?' asked Dumbledore.

'Well, my birthday's the 25th of April, and I'm 16. It's November, yes?'

'Yes.'

'So I'll be 17 next year, in 2012.'

They all gasped.

'Ah,' said the Doctor, looking guilty.

'What?'

'Bree, it's 2008.'

'Oh.'

'Yes, sorry about that,' the Doctor said, running his hand through his hair. She thought about this in silence for a moment.

'So, I guess I'm stuck here until you get the TARDIS fixed, then.'

'So, Bree, you'll be in sixth year, with Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Harry, could you take them to the Room of Requirement?'

'Yes sir,' he said, and led them out the office. 'The Room of Requirement gives you what ever you need. We used it for a secret club last year.'

'It's so great you're in our year!' said Hermione.

'At least I'll know some people. Is this magic lark hard?' she asked, twirling her wand between her fingers.

'You might struggle a bit, going straight into NEWT courses…'

'What…'

'Like A levels,' said the Doctor. Bree nodded in understanding.

'But we'll all help you.'

'Are you in their year?' Bree asked Ginny.

'No, but I'm only the year below them,' Ginny replied. Bree was glad. She liked Ginny, and could see an interesting relationship between her and Harry.

'I think Harry fancies you,' she whispered to Ginny, quietly. Hermione also leant in.

'I told you, Ginny. Bree's only been here a few hours and she's noticed.'

'No, he doesn't. Anyway, I'm with Dean, now.' Bree and Hermione giggled. Ginny ignored them.

'What's going on back here, then?' asked the Doctor, They all broke out into uncontrollable laughter. The boys looked worriedly at them, before continuing. Collecting themselves, the girls followed them.

'Here we go,' said Harry, as they stopped in front of a blank wall.

'Err…' said Bree, but she went quiet when a door appeared. Inside the room were two trunks, a normal sized one for Bree, and a larger one for the doctor. Hermione showed them both how to cast locomotor charms, and the trunks followed them to the Gryffindor Common Room. Harry showed the Doctor to his classroom, and they all flopped down on the chairs in front of the fire.

'God, I'm tired,' said Bree. 'It was night time when I hid in the TARDIS, and now its morning. I've got a whole day to go before I can sleep.'

'You go and sleep, it's Saturday tomorrow, and there's no point in you starting lessons now. The Doctor probably won't start until Monday, when Dumbledore's sorted out the Timetables.'

Bree yawned and trudged up the steps, her trunk following her.

'It's the one with Sixth year on it!' Hermione called after her. 'We should go to lessons now,' said Hermione. They all groaned.

****

The Doctor had organised some of his lessons, and had had a flick through the textbooks from the Room of Requirement. They were good. He decided to go and see the TARDIS.

'Hello. I'm sorry about this,' he said, stroking the side, before going in. He got some weird stares from passing students, but he ignored them.

The TARDIS was in bad shape.

'I'm so sorry,' he crooned, patting the dashboard. He started to look at the damage, and realised he would need help. Someone as clever as him would be best, and he had an idea. He bounded off to Dumbledore's office.

'Can a friend of mine come to this school, to help me fix the TARDIS?' he asked.

'How old is this friend?' asked Dumbledore.

'Technically, he's quite young, but he's about 16, I think.'

'We have a space in Harry's year, there are only 5 boys. It's a very small year. Your friend can come; you can have whatever you need to fix the TARDIS.'

'Thanks. I'll just floo over to his house.' The Doctor took a pinch of the powder from a pot near Dumbledore's fireplace. He stood in the fire and let go of the powder.

'15 Bannerman Road!' He shouted, and he was gone in a rush of green flames.

He shot out of the fireplace at the other end, much to the surprise of the 16 year old boy, who had been reading by the fireplace.

'Doctor?'

'Hello Luke.'

'Mum's out, but she'll be back by lunchtime…'

'Good, but it's not Sarah Jane I need. It's you.'

*****

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear. Bree, having slept through the rest of Friday, woke feeling rather lethargic on Saturday, like you always do after sleeping for too long, so she didn't do much except flick through her new books. It was all very interesting. She had also spent some time with the Doctor, before making her way back to the common room, and going to bed early.

Bree had met the other girls in her dormitory, and they were nice, but she got on best with Hermione and Ginny, who sometimes ate with her in the kitchens. This morning, however, Hermione was still asleep, and knowing Ginny wouldn't want to be disturbed, she decided to go on her own.

She stretched, and drew her curtains.

Today Harry and Ron were going to teach her to fly. They'd promised her the other night, when she woke up, hungry. This was what she had looked forward to the most about the magical world, although spells were cool. Not feeling homesick at all, she got dressed into some jeans and a T-Shirt she'd found in the trunk from the Room of Requirement. It all fit better than her clothes at home.

Dumbledore had requested that she not make a public appearance until Monday, so she made her way down to the kitchens, where the Doctor would also be. She liked the Doctor. Although she'd only just met him, she felt like she'd known him for years.

This morning, he was reading the paper. She was amazed to see that the pictures of the Daily Prophet were moving, but she was used to the magical world now, and didn't trouble herself thinking about it too much.

'Anything interesting?' she asked, companiably.

'Not really.'

She scoffed her breakfast, anxious to fly.

'You look excited. What are you doing today?'

'Harry and Ron are teaching me to fly on a broomstick. I can't wait!'

'Oh yeah, Minerva wants to see you in her office at ten o'clock.' Bree looked anxiously at her watch, and then remembered it had broken the night she was chased. She suspected it was when she fell over.

'Don't worry, it's only 9. Here, you can borrow mine.'

'Thanks.'

As she lent forward to take his watch, her necklace dangled over the table. She'd always worn it, but she never knew why she was so attached to it. The Doctor looked startled, but his expression changed abruptly back to impassiveness. He smiled at her.

'Are you going to help me fix the TARDIS?'

'I might as well, considering it's my ride home. Of course!' she grinned. 'Though I would much prefer to stay here.'

'You can choose when it's ready. Dumbledore's going to move it to Hogsmeade…'

'What's Hogsmeade?'

'A little village just outside Hogwarts grounds,' said the Doctor. 'He's going to move it today, so we can start on repairs. I don't know how long it will take to charge up though.'

'Ah well,' said Bree, and they ate in silence for a while. Bree produced a book and read it while the Doctor read the paper.

'Oh no, it's nearly quarter to ten!' gasped Bree. 'I completely lost track of time, and I need at least half an hour to get there, in case I get lost.' She rushed out the kitchen, waving a hasty goodbye to the Doctor. He smiled, rolled up his paper, and followed her out.

Bree burst through the door of McGonagall's office, only two minutes late. On her way, she'd managed to knock at least five people to the floor, and tripped a million times. She wasn't the most graceful person on a good day, and definitely not under pressure.

'Sorry I'm late, I got lost,' she gasped. She was just glad she didn't have her bag of books. She would definitely be out of breath then.

'Don't worry, Bree, we're still waiting for the Doctor.' She gestured to herself, and to a boy lounging on a desk in front of her.

'Hello,' he said. She gaped. He was wearing normal clothes, like she was, but he obviously didn't go to Hogwarts. He didn't have a wand sticking out of his back pocket of his trousers, like everyone else did, but was examining one in his hand. Bree didn't like this school habit, as it was very uncomfortable, and so she put her wand in her hair. It kept it out the way, and stopped her hair getting in the way. Two birds with one stone.

'Um, hi,' she mumbled. She felt very stupid. Not to mention she was panting heavily and slightly red-faced.

'This is Luke Smith, a new student like you,' said Professor McGonagall. Then the Doctor burst in.

'Luke! Glad you could make it. How's your mum?'

'Fine. She let me come eventually, but I had to milk the whole situation about you and another poor soul being stuck here without my help,' he said grinning.

'Are you here to help fix the TARDIS?' asked Bree, looking him up and down. He looked about her age, and he had light brown hair and blue eyes. His eyes were very innocent looking, and so was he. He looked questioningly at her, and she realized she'd been staring.

'What house are you in?' she asked casually. He was quite fit, actually. Please be in Gryffindor, please be in Gryffindor…

'Well the hat wanted to put me in Ravenclaw,' he shared a grin with the doctor, 'but it decided that while I am clever with some things, I'm not so good with others.' Again he shared a knowing look with the Doctor. Bree was beginning to get frustrated. 'So the hat put me in Gryffindor.'

'I'm in Gryffindor, too,' she said, trying not to sound too happy about this.

'Your stuff will be put in your dormitory, so you are free to do whatever you like for the rest of the day,' said Professor McGonagall. 'You both shall be introduced formally to the school tomorrow morning at breakfast.' They both nodded, and the Doctor sauntered out.

'I have to meet Harry, Ron and Hermione down by the Quidditch pitch in a few minutes,' said Bree, glancing at her, or technically the Doctor's, watch, 'Do you want to come too? You're in sixth year too, so you could meet them.'

'Yeah, sure,' he said, and followed her out the classroom. 'You still haven't told me your name.'

'It's Bree,' she said, shy all of a sudden.

'Unusual name,' he commented.

'My parents were unusual,' she murmured.

'So were mine,' he laughed, 'honestly, you have no idea how weird mine are. So, how did you get stuck here?'

'I was being chased, and I hid in the TARDIS. It was foggy, so I didn't see what it was, and I passed out almost as soon as I'd sat down,' she said. He looked shocked.

'When did this happen?' he asked.

'On Friday.' They walked in silence for a while, and Bree managed to remember the way to the Quidditch Pitch, without getting lost more than twice. When they arrived Harry and Ron were already in the air, while Hermione hovered by the school broom they'd brought out.

'Oh good, you're here. I thought you'd got lost. Who are you?' she asked, surprised at seeing Luke walking next to Bree. Harry and Ron flew over.

'Guys, this is Luke Smith. He's going to help the Doctor and me…'

'Doctor and I,' corrected Hermione.

'Fix the TARDIS. He's in Gryffindor, our year,' she said. 'Luke, this is Harry, Ron, and Hermione.'

'Do you want to fly too?' asked Ron. Luke nodded, looking excited.

'I'll just go and get a broom for you,' said Hermione, and she rushed off to the Broom shed. Ron handed Bree the other one.

'You hold it like this,' he demonstrated, 'and you get on it like this.'

'OK,' she said, uncertainly, as Hermione came back with another broom. Luke copied the hand grip and mounted his, grinning.

'As long as it's easier than football, I don't mind,' he said.

'And you push off like this,' said Harry, and he shot off up into the air. Bree gave it a go, and found it to be relatively easy. She whooped, and pushed the broom on faster. She and Luke had a race to the goalposts, and then Harry got out a tennis ball. They played catch, with Hermione levitating the ball back to them whenever someone dropped it (which was quite often, and mainly Bree and Luke). Soon their faces were red with cold, and flushed with exertion. They stopped only when Ron's stomach rumbled so loudly Hermione heard it from the ground and told them to come down for lunch.

Bree was happier than she had been in years. She had friends, a comfortable place to live, and the promise of many exciting lessons. Also there was no Aunt Malice to interrupt this happiness, as she always managed to get in the way before.

She thought she was starting to get a little crush on Luke, as she had dropped the tennis ball many times because she'd been watching him. At least it's him, she thought, as Harry is already taken, and Ron was apparently going out with Lavender, a girl in her dormitory, at whose mention Hermione became very quiet and snappy. Somebody's jealous, she thought.

**A/N: Oooh, Hermione's jealous. So, tell me what you thought. Review people!!**


	5. Physics!

**A/N: Sorry about the wait, but I've had a bad week of exams. Thanks to everyone who has favourited my story.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, in case you hadn't noticed that this is on the computer, not in a book.**

They all went to the kitchens for lunch, as Luke and Bree still had to eat there. The Doctor was there when they arrived, but left soon after to oversee the moving of the TARDIS. Nothing much happened during lunch, but Luke was bombarded with questions about himself.

'Are you a muggle?'

'I have a magical core, apparently, but I was never 11, so I couldn't have got my letter.'

'Why…'

'Was I never 11? I was grown by aliens, to help them take over the world, but mum, my friend Maria, who moved to America, and I defeated them. When I was activated I was about 14 body age.' This was met by open mouths. Bree, who had had a lot to deal with since she found out she's stowed away in a spaceship and ended up at Hogwarts, got over it quickest.

'Why does the Doctor need you to help?'

'When I was grown, I was given the cleverness of 10'000 men. I'm quite good with machines, and science. I'm terrible with people, though, because I never grew up.'

'So how old are you technically?'

'Three.'

'Ahh.'

Luke was soon part of the gang, just as Bree was. Sunday evening found them all sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, in varying moods. Harry, Ron and Hermione were tired and depressed about the closeness of Monday morning, whereas Luke and Bree were very excited.

Bree was so excited she couldn't sleep. After lying in bed, gazing at her hangings for a while, listening to the other girls' deep breathing, she sat up, rolled her legs out of her bed and got out. Picking up her dressing gown that was draped over her chest of drawers, she made her way back down to the Common Room.

When she got there, however, her favourite seat by the fire was already taken.

'Oh. Hi,' said Luke.

'Hi,' she said, gazing forlornly at _her_ seat.

'What are you doing up?'

'Couldn't sleep.'

'Me neither.'

She stood there for a bit longer.

'Are you going to sit down?' asked Luke, his forehead puckering with confusion. She shook her head.

'You're sitting in my favourite place,' she told him, sadly. It wasn't that special, but she'd been so looking forward to curling up on that seat, and feeling the heat from the fire on her face and front, rather than on one side.

'Oh, sorry,' he said, and he shuffled over. 'But it's my favourite too, so we'll have to share.' He grinned, and Bree walked over, thankful the seats were so big. She squished in next to him. She could feel the heat from his body and the heat from the fire, and it was very comfortable. They sat there for a while, but after a time she noticed Luke was looking a bit sad.

'What's the matter?' she asked. He sighed.

'It's a bit silly really.'

'Tell me? Please?'

'No, it's silly,' he said, waving his hand and accidently biffing her head, forgetting how close they were. 'Oh, sorry.'

'S'ok,' said Bree, combing her hair flat again. 'Please tell me?'

'Promise you won't laugh?'

'I promise.'

'Well, it's just that I've never been away from my mum for more than two nights, and I just feel a bit…'

'Homesick?'

'Yeah. But I won't see her for ages, and I just…'

'You're lucky. When this is all over, I go back to Aunt Millicent, who hates me. But I think, because you're so clever, people forget you're only three.' Luke smiled at her, and she patted his hand. 'Don't worry about it. It's more natural than wanting to stay here rather than go home.' He squeezed her hand, and Bree suddenly felt tired. She yawned widely, and Luke let go of her hand.

'Maybe we should go to bed now,' he said.

'It's going to be an exciting day tomorrow,' Bree yawned again, and set off to her dormitory. 'Night!' she called.

'Goodnight Bree,' said Luke softly, before going up to his own bed to sleep.

***

The Doctor woke up quite late Monday morning, and had to rush to get to breakfast on time. Dumbledore was going to introduce him, Luke and Bree officially today, and he couldn't be late.

He was excited about his classes, which would start with the seventh years straight after breakfast. He was all set up, and interested to see what the young witches and wizards would make of Physics, being a muggle subject. Bree had told him she'd been doing GCSE Physics so she would be far ahead of the others, as would Luke. He had decided to separate them from the rest of the class, and he had special books. It would make marking a nightmare, with two different things, but he wanted everyone to learn.

He sped through the corridors, slipping and sliding in his converse. He managed to avoid most of the students, but he went straight into Bree, who was also running to breakfast.

'Ouch!' They both yelled, but thanks to Luke's quick thinking, did not end up on the floor.

'You late as well?' asked Luke, trying not to laugh, but failing miserably.

'Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy running. Gets the adrenalin pumping,' said the Doctor.

'Next time you get your adrenalin pumping, could you try and avoid other people,' said Bree, rubbing her shoulder. But she had a twinkle in her eye, so the Doctor knew she wasn't that upset.

'Hurry up, you'll be late for breakfast,' he said, in his most teacher-ish tone, and strode off towards the Great Hall. As he went, he heard Bree distinctly mutter 'Hypocrite' behind him. He grinned.

'And don't you just love me!' he called over his shoulder.

The Great Hall was almost full when he got there. Although he was wearing robes, he got a lot of stares as he made his way to the teacher's table, and muttering started up behind him, which got louder when Luke and Bree walked in behind him, and went to sit with Harry, Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table.

The students sat waiting for food to appear on the tables as usual, but nothing came. Instead, Dumbledore stood up, and held out his arms for quiet. There was a wave of chatting, and then the hall fell silent.

'Good morning. I just want a few minutes of your time before we start breakfast to introduce three people who will be joining our school.' Dumbledore waited for the talking to subside after this, and then began again. 'We have two new students, Luke Smith and Bree Penney, who are joining Gryffindor sixth year. We also have a new teacher, Professor Smith,' he gestured to the Doctor.

'Professor Smith?' asked Harry, under his breath.

'I'll ask in Physics,' Bree whispered back.

'Professor Smith will be teaching you Physics, a muggle subject, which will not be included in your OWL's or NEWT's, but there will be a test at the end of the year, set by the Doctor, so don't think you can slack off. Your timetables have been changed and will tell you when your lesson is.' There was a flurry of movement as everyone reached for their timetables, to see when they would have Physics.

'Yes, we've got it this afternoon,' said Bree excitedly.

'Now, tuck in!' said Dumbledore, and everyone turned their attention to the food which had just appeared in front of them.

The Doctor turned to Flitwick, who was sitting next to him, and struck up conversation.

***

'What do we have after breakfast?' asked Luke. Ron, too busy stuffing his eggs and bacon, jerked his thumb at Hermione.

'Hermione, what do we have?' he asked again. She glanced up from her book, and took pity on him.

'I've got Ancient Runes, but you're not taking that, so you've got a free period.'

'First thing on a Monday? Excellent!' said Bree, tucking into her bacon.

'And I've got no homework, so I can relax!' said Ron triumphantly, throwing down his fork.

'Neither have we,' said Bree, gesturing to herself and Luke with her knife, and splattering Luke with tomato sauce. 'Oops, sorry.' Luke grinned, dipped his fingers in his pumpkin juice and flicked the droplets at her. She shrieked, and shoved Ron in front of her, who promptly fell off his chair. Hermione and Ginny had an attack of the giggles and Harry helped Ron up, laughing as well.

The free period went very quickly, and Harry, Ron, Bree and Luke spent their time in the Common Room, lounging on the chairs, and relaxing. Bree was excited and hyper, and spent most of her time flicking her wand and accidentally setting Ron's hair on fire.

'_Agumenti_,' said Harry, putting it out.

'Wow, can you teach me to do that?' asked Bree. All too soon the bell went, and after break they made their way to charms. Harry, Ron and Luke all looked distinctly soggy, having been caught by stray water jets from Bree's wand. Charms was fun; Bree and Luke did very well considering they'd never even held a wand before. Flitwick didn't give them any homework, and they all went to lunch in a reasonably happy mood, except for Ron, who still couldn't get the hang of non-verbal spells, and had to practise that night for tomorrow's lesson.

'S'alright for you,' he grumbled at Bree over the shepherd's pie, 'You haven't been doing verbal spells all your life.' Bree chose wisely not to answer. She was too happy to start a fight, and excited about her lesson with the Doctor. She wanted to see what all the Hogwartian's reactions would be.

The Doctor set her and Luke aside when they all arrived at the classroom.

'You guys have done all this before, so you're going to do an advanced course.' He gave them some books, told them where to start, and set them off. Casting a silencing charm over them, so they wouldn't disturb his lesson, he turned to the rest of the class, a grin as big as a peeled banana on his face.

'So, Physics!'

**A/N: I would like five reviews before updating the next chapter, as I haven't had a single one yet! So review, or no Chapter 6!**


	6. Skating

**a/n: A bit of a fluffy chapter. Btw, please leave reviews! I've only had one so far, and there are 5 chapters! 6 now. (Thanks, goddess of all daleks! You're the only reason I'm posting this). If you want the next chapter, review! It makes me write faster, and it doesn't take long. Thanks.**

The class left in mixed moods.

'That was sooo hard, I couldn't understand hardly any of it…' said Parvati to Lavender, who nodded fervently. Ron was also in a bad mood.

'I mean, he talks at about 100 miles an hour, and then asks you a question, which you have no idea even means, and then looks at you as if you're an idiot when you ask what the hell he asked,' he grumbled. Hermione opened her mouth, but Ron got there first.

'And don't say I am an idiot, he's just too clever,' he said moodily. Hermione closed her mouth, and looked loftily at him.

'I know what you mean. And the homework'll take ages, but at least he's nice, and doesn't give detentions for no reason, like another teacher I could mention' Harry said, obviously referring to Snape. They waited outside the classroom for Luke and Bree, who were being given their homework by the Doctor.

They came out smiling, Bree almost bouncing.

'How are you so happy?' asked Ron, still in a bit of a grump.

'It was really fun, that lesson. We were doing all about atoms and quarks.'

'Err, what?' asked Harry.

'Sorry, they're just these…things,' she said vaguely, waving a hand through the air. 'The Doctor's called himself John Smith, so he doesn't sound too strange,' she told Harry. He nodded in understanding.

'How much homework did you get?' asked Hermione.

'Not much,' said Luke, 'we did a lot in the lesson.'

'He,' said Bree, poking Luke in the chest, 'is amazingly clever. It's so unfair!'

'You're quite clever… for a human,' Luke joked, and Bree slapped him on the arm.

'I'll take that as a compliment,' she said.

The Common Room was full of people doing their homework. Ginny waved them over from a table in the corner. They all managed to squeeze round it, but it was a tight fit. Harry found his arm pressed against Ginny's, and it took all his strength not to blush. Ron was also looking uncomfortable, sandwiched between Bree and Hermione.

'Have you had the Doctor yet?' asked Ginny. 'I can't wait!'

'Yeah, we just had him,' said Harry.

'He's a really good teacher,' said Hermione, trying to get a book out her bag. Bree struggled to extricate her arm, which was pinned against Luke.

'Sorry, sorry,' she said, when she finally managed to get her arm out, and whacked Ron on the head. Harry snorted into his charms essay, choked, and Ginny thumped him on the back. The back of his neck grew hot, and he dived under the table to get his charms books. When he resurfaced, he saw Bree looking at him, an evil smile on her face. She raised her eyebrows, and he blushed again and dropped his face back to his essay. Damn, had he been that obvious?

'Is there Hogsmeade on Saturday?' asked Hermione.

'Hogsmeade?' asked Luke.

'Wizard village just outside the grounds,' supplied Ginny. 'It's got the best pub and joke shop there.'

'And sweetshop. Honeydukes is amazing,' added Ron.

'Honestly Ron, do you ever stop thinking about food?' asked Hermione, exasperatedly.

'Only when he's thinking about his stomach,' said Ginny. Bree cracked up, and Ron looked offended.

'Sorry, Ron,' said Ginny, seeing his expression.

'You know, that joke's getting really old,' he grumbled.

'Hogsmeade sounds nice,' said Luke.

'It is. Especially in the winter, like now. The snow makes it look like a Christmas card,' Ginny waved her arm towards the window, showing the grounds covered in snow, and accidently hitting Harry. 'Sorry Harry.' Bree looked out the window.

'We should go ice-skating on the lake,' she said. 'I love ice-skating.' Ginny squealed with excitement.

'I love ice skating too! We should so do it! How about Sunday?' They all ended up agreeing to go. Bree and Ginny's excitement was infectious.

'I've never ice-skated before,' said Luke.

'I'll teach you,' offered Bree.

'My friend tried to teach me to skateboard, but I have terrible balance. He gave up eventually.'

'It's all about balance, but you need to have momentum too. I'm sure you'll catch on.'

There was nothing but the scratching of quills and the burbling of chatter from the rest of the Common Room for a while. Bree finished her essay with a flourish of her quill, splattering Luke and Ginny with ink.

'Can you buy pets in Hogsmeade?' asked Bree. 'The Room of Requirement gave me a bag of gold, and I'd like to buy an animal.'

'Yeah, I think so. I've never been there though,' said Harry.

'I have, I'll show you,' Ginny said. Bree gave her a grateful look.

'We should all meet in the Three Broomsticks- the pub,' she added for Bree and Luke's benefit, 'at Lunchtime.'

The week went quickly for Luke and Bree, a whirlwind of essays, spells and new experiences. Bree loved every minute of it, and dreaded going home, though, she reminded herself, that wouldn't be for a while yet.

The Hogsmeade outing was brilliant, in the words of the Doctor. Brilliant seemed to be his favourite word. Bree bought a black cat with grey-green eyes that looked like the sea. Christened Babushka by Bree, and nicknamed Bushky by Ginny, she was currently draped over Bree's shoulders, purring loudly.

Ginny and Hermione came thundering down the girl's staircase, wrapped up in hats and scarves.

'We're ready,' called a breathless Hermione.

'Finally,' grumbled Ron, and he got up from his chair.

'Bushky, you're going to have to get off now,' Bree said gently to the cat, while carefully pushing her off.

'Let's go ice-skating!' shouted Ginny, excitedly, and, linking arms with Harry, she dragged him out the portrait hole. Bree grinned slyly.

'Someone's excited,' said Hermione, wryly.

'I wonder who that could be? Oh, I know, Ron!' said Bree, laughing. Both girls turned to look at Ron, who was grumbling to himself and dragging his feet on the floor. They looked at each other and giggled.

'What has been up with him this week?' asked Hermione, waving her hands exasperatedly. 'He's so grumpy. If he was a girl I'd say PMS.'

'I hope it has nothing to do with me,' said Bree, looking worried. She chewed a strand of her hair that had flicked up to her mouth.

'No, he likes you and Luke. It's not that. If I find out, we might be able to make him happy…' she continued to mutter to herself all the way down to the lake.

Ginny was very, very excited and also slightly hyper.

'Come on come on come on come on COME ON!' she called, pulling Harry's arm and shouting at the others.

'Calm down Ginny, it's only ice-skating,' said Hermione, but Ginny's happiness couldn't be dampened. She loved ice-skating, and had done ever since her dad taught her how to skate on the pond in the woods near their house. And the lake was massive! She would be able to skate in a straight line for ages.

Bree changed her converse into skates, and set off. Pushing against the ice, she felt the exhilarated feeling of speed as she raced Ginny to the other side. Coming back, she saw Luke on the ice, looking like a colt learning to walk. It was very funny, but also adorable. She winced as he slipped and landed on his bum. He looked up at her, a grin on his face. Unable to help herself, she laughed too.

'I told you, no balance. That's what Clyde always used to say.'

'Is that your friend's name?'

'Yeah.'

'Here,' she said, offering her gloved hand to him. He took it and she hauled him up. 'Right, just stand there and try to stand upright, but lean forward slightly,' she told him. He did that, clenching his teeth in concentration. 'Now, push forward with one foot, then the other.' His hand was tight on hers as he slowly pushed forward, very slowly. 'That's it, careful now.'

He was doing fine until Ginny decided to jump on Harry's back. His resulting yell of surprise made Luke snap his head around, to see, which made him slip. He crashed to the ice, pulling Bree down on top. She shrieked as she landed on him, and rolled off.

'Ouch,' he said, rolling onto his back and rubbing his arm. Ron and Hermione came over to see if they were ok, one decidedly less graceful than the other.

'Are you ok?' asked Hermione, looking down at them, as she came to a graceful stop by Luke's head. Ron went shooting past, his arms flailing wildly. Harry, who had taken to ice-skating very well, came over with Ginny on his back. Bree scrambled to her feet.

'Luke?'

'Is it alright if I just stay down here? I don't think I'll ever get the hang of it,' he said, pleadingly.

'Nope, sorry. You're going to be my project. We'll have you skating if we have to practice all winter,' said Bree sternly, holding out her hand again. Luke, getting a serious case of déjà vu, took it, groaning.

'I'll help,' said Harry and Ginny, at exactly the same time. Bree and Hermione shared knowing looks.

'I'll stay with Ron, he might hurt himself,' said Hermione, before skating off to find out where he'd got to. This time Bree found herself sharing a knowing glance with Ginny.

The rest of the day included many hilarious pile-ups, the most spectacular of which resulting from Ron, unable to stop himself, skating slap bang into Luke, who just so happened to be linked to Harry, Ginny and Bree. Hermione laughed so much she fell over too. By the end they had had a marginal amount of success; Luke could now skate for a few metres without assistance, Ron could almost stop, and Harry could skate like a natural.

They were all covered in bruises, the first of which were already beginning to form. Ron had accidentally skated over Bree's hand, so she had a cut, which, although rather large, was reasonably shallow, as she had had her gloves on at the time. They went back to the Gryffindor Common Room, wet, cold, sore, but happy, laughing and joking.

They didn't realize they were being watched. The Doctor turned away from the window in his office, and sighed. How could he tell them?

**A/N: Now, Imperio!! Review!! I would be very happy with four, so press that little green button!**


	7. The Doctor's Day

**a/n: Quite a long chapter now. Hope you enjoy it. It is also rather pointless and fluffy, but the action picks up soon. There will be about 15 chapters and an epilogue and I've got up to 13, so updates should be pretty quick.**

He had been a bit restless ever since he had seen Bree's necklace that time at breakfast. He'd pushed it to the back of his mind during the week, due to the hectic new timetable. The amount of student's names he had to memorize! It was almost too much for even his super brain to handle!

The thought nagged him all through Saturday, and he decided to pay a visit to the TARDIS on Sunday.

As he strolled through the snow-covered grounds, the Doctor heard screams and laughs coming from the lake. He peered round a bush, and saw Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luke, Ginny and Bree ice-skating. He smiled, until he saw a flash of silver around Bree's neck. He remembered when he saw it the first time. The swirly markings on the silver locket looked a lot like gallifreyan script, the writing from his planet. Where could she have got it from? Unless…

He flung himself into the TARDIS, and was glad to find that the computers still worked, even if nothing else did. At least he could watch TV and surf the internet.

The Doctor set a search for Time Lord technology in the near area. He'd forgotten about the energy pulse, however, and the TARDIS didn't pick up anything. He needed to get a closer look at that necklace.

He walked slowly back through the gates flanked by winged boars, and he caught sight of a Thestral swooping over the forest. He thought of all the death he'd seen, and a weight entered his chest.

He arrived at his office with wet feet. As he passed the window, he saw the students head back to the castle, looking happy. He had to find out what that necklace was!

He plotted for a while, and decided to take action the next day, after the lesson.

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They all sat around the fireplace, warming their feet by the fire.

'Ow, ow, ow, OW!'

'Stop complaining!' Bree was dipping her hand in some essence of murtlap, provided by Hermione, and she found out dipping an open cut in liquid is very painful. Harry looked over his shoulder at them.

'Once it's in, it's lovely, trust me,' he told her. 'That happened to me in fifth year,' He said. Bree grimaced and tentatively hovered her hand over the bowl.

Ron and Luke also peered round their armchairs, sympathetic looks on their faces.

'Sorry,' said Ron, guiltily.

'Are you OK?' asked Luke, looking concerned.

'Yeah, just fin… OW! HERMIONE!' she shrieked, as Hermione finally lost her patience and dunked her hand in the Murtlap essence. Everyone laughed, even Bree, once she got over the pain. Harry looked over to Ginny, to see if she was laughing, but she was curled up on one of the armchairs, asleep. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply.

'What time is it?' asked Ron, yawning himself.

'Nearly half-nine,' Hermione replied.

'Well then, I might follow Ginny's example and turn in.'

'Good idea,' said Bree, and made to get up. Hermione pushed her back down.

'You're staying here until the cut closes,' she said sternly. Bree groaned. 'Goodnight,' said Hermione. 'Make sure she doesn't leave until she can,' she said, gesturing to Bree. Harry took no notice of this; still staring at Ginny's sleeping form.

'Harry, are you coming up? Harry? HARRY! EARTH TO HARRY!' Ron shouted into Harry's ear. He jumped about a foot in the air, and looked up guiltily. Ginny woke up as well, and went up the stairs with Hermione.

'Don't leave me!' called Bree plaintively. Harry and Ron got up as well.

'Sorry Bree, but I'm think I'm going up too,' said Harry,

'What, nothing for you to look at anymore?' smirked Bree. Harry blushed, and Ron, who was as usual completely clueless, looked confused.

'What's she talking about? Harry?' But Harry had escaped up the stairs to the boy's dormitory before Ron could question him anymore. Ron ran up after him, hastily calling, 'G'night,' over his shoulder as he did.

Luke got to his feet too, but Bree called him back.

'Don't leave me all on my own!' Bree's voice was getting panicky now. Luke could see her getting scared and agitated, and walked over to sit next to her.

'Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. Why are you so worried, anyway?' Bree blushed and ducked her head. She mumbled something under her breath. 'Pardon?' said Luke. Then he realized something. 'This hasn't got anything to do with why you were hiding on the TARDIS in the first place?' he asked, dawning comprehension on his face. She nodded. 'Do you want to talk about it?' he asked softly, putting an arm around her shoulders.

Bree was confused. She'd been irrationally scared of being left alone, even though she knew that those men were safely out of reach in 2011. But now she just felt… hot. Luke was very close, and was gripping her shoulder comfortingly. It made all the fear fly out of her, and she told him what had happened. The re-telling made her feel less heavy, as though she was putting down a weighty load, but it also brought back her fear.

Luke listened to her story with growing horror. He had the sudden urge to go and kill those men, not a rational thought at all. He felt Bree shaking and gathered her up in his arms, rocking her gently, like a baby. Her hitched sobs calmed down, though her heart was going extraordinarily fast. She finally drew back, and looked at his soaked shirt ruefully.

'Sorry. It's just…' she shook her head, to clear it. Luke understood.

'Do you feel better now?' he asked. She grinned, returning to her old self again. Luke sighed, relieved.

'Can you… not tell the others, just yet?' she asked, biting her lip.

'Sure. No problem.' Luke agreed readily. She grinned up at him again, as he was at least 4 inches taller than her when they were sitting down. All her height came from her legs. Luke averted his thoughts from her legs quickly.

'Night,' she said, and took her hand out of the murtlap essence. 'I think it's done now,' she said, drying it on a towel Hermione had given her before. She was about to walk away, when the fiery spirit of Ginny suddenly seemed to possess her, and she whipped around and brushed her lips on Luke's cheek. Then she legged it up the stairs, bright red and embarrassed.

Luke sat there for a long time, his hand on his cheek, which felt like it was on fire.

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They awoke the next morning to a silent, white world. Ginny broke the calm when she came barrelling into the sixth year girls dormitory.

'It's snowed! SNOWED! It's about 5 metres high!' she shrieked delightedly. Lavender and Parvati turned over and groaned, and Hermione, who was propped up on her cushions reading a large, heavy tome that looked extremely boring, gave the window a cursory glance before continuing to read _Azkaban Trials 1872-75._ Bree, having lived all her life in England, where if there ever was any snow, it was a pathetic inch that immediately turned to ice, jumped up excitedly.

'Wow! There's so much! Look, that snowdrift comes up to Hagrid's neck!' She stuck her head out the window, her breath crystallising in front of her as she watched Hagrid dig out his cabin. She'd had tea with him last weekend, and had experienced his cooking firsthand. She didn't fancy sampling it again.

Large fat flakes swirled down to the white grounds, and Bree reached out to catch some. Ginny shivered and pulled the window shut. Bree groaned suddenly.

'What?' asked Ginny.

'It's Monday. I hate Monday mornings,' she grumbled. Ginny grinned.

'There's no school today, remember? It's the first day of the Christmas holidays! And I think loads of people are going home, so we'll have the whole tower to ourselves!' she bounced around happily. Hermione looked up from her book.

'Aren't you going home?' she asked.

'No, Mum said its safer here than at the Burrow, as Dad's working a lot. But loads of people are going home because their parents want to keep an eye on them.'

'Yeah, I had to bully my parents into letting me come back this year,' chipped in Lavender. 'They gave in on the condition that I came home every holiday.'

'Same,' sighed Parvati. 'Well, we better pack, the train leaves in three hours.'

Leaving the two girls to pack, Ginny, Hermione, and Bree made their way down the stairs, still in their pyjamas, because, as Ginny said, 'I can't be bothered to change if there's no lessons.'

After a very relaxing morning doing absolutely nothing in front of the fire, the girls waved goodbye to Lavender and Parvati, and the other Gryffindor who were leaving, and then they went upstairs to get changed.

'We should have a sleepover,' said Ginny, to the room at large. Bree, who at the time was trying to put on a sock while standing up, fell over with a thud and swore.

'Bree! You sound like Ron!' Hermione walked out the shower and looked at Bree shocked at her language.

'Sorry, but that really hurt,' she said, getting up and rubbing her bum.

'Anyway,' said Ginny breezily, 'What do you think?'

Bree said 'errr,' at the same time Hermione said 'About what?'

'We should have a sleepover!' said Ginny again, gesturing with her hairbrush.

'Yeah, and we could read magazines and do manicures and pedicures and stuff!' squealed Hermione.

'And eat loads of chocolate!' said Bree.

'Should we have it here, or in my dormitory?' asked Ginny.

'If we're banning the boys, which I think we should…' Bree and Ginny nodded violently at Hermione, 'then we should do it in Ginny's dormitory, because they won't suspect we're there. I'll look up some charms to keep them away, though I'm sure the staircase will be able to keep them away.'

'I'll bring nail varnish and stuff,' said Ginny, 'and Bree, could you get some magazines from the room of Requirement?'

'Sure, and Hermione can get some food from the kitchens!'

'I'll get some stuff for face masks and things as well,' said Hermione. They all squealed excitedly.

Ginny was still slightly red from excitement when they came down the stairs. Ron, Harry and Luke were in the Common Room.

'You're looking very flushed Ginny, are you coming down with a bug or something?' Harry asked, walking over and laying the back of his hand on her forehead. 'You're burning up.' Ginny, if possible, turned even redder.

'I'm fine, really,' she said, ducking away from his hand, 'We just got a bit hyper, that's all.'

'Why?' asked Ron, looking curious, but also slightly nervous. 'You're not plotting anything, are you?' He looked worriedly at each of the girls. Ginny grinned mischievously back.

'Don't worry, Ron, it's nothing you need to worry about,' she said sweetly, and she headed out the portrait hole, cackling loudly.

'Cause that's made me feel a whole lot better,' said Ron, and he, Harry and Luke followed the girls cautiously to the Great Hall for a very late breakfast, or a very early lunch.

The boys continued to feel nervous throughout breakfast, as the girls kept looking at each other and grinning.

'I can't take any more of this,' Ron whispered to Harry and Luke, 'my nerves are already in shreds and I haven't even had lunch yet!'

'We'll have to figure out a plan,' said Harry, 'So we can find out what they're up to.'

They put their heads together, and came up with a reasonably good idea.

Bree watched them confer, and turned to Hermione.

'Should we be worried that they're so interested in what we're doing?' she asked. Hermione did not answer straight away, as she was having a bit of difficulty balancing her book, the jug of pumpkin juice it was resting on, and her full fork all at once.

'I don't think so.'

'Luke's pretty clever though…' Bree trailed off.

'And if they find out, they might use extendable ears to listen in when we play truth or dare!' said Ginny, through a mouthful of eggs. Hermione looked disdainful.

'Hmmm, I don't think so. They won't know unless we tell them, will they? And we won't tell them, however clever Luke is.'

'No, but still…'

'Stop being such a worry-guts, Bree! It'll all be fine,' Ginny said confidently, swigging her juice. Bree wasn't satisfied, though, and glanced warily at the boys, who had finished their whispered conversation and wore big grins.

'They seem pretty sure of themselves,' she jerked at thumb in their direction. Hermione sniffed haughtily and Ginny smiled.

'They're all under our thumbs,' she said, 'watch!' Ginny turned to the boys and winked evilly. To Bree's amazement, it had a huge effect. Harry went red, and suddenly found his cereal very interesting, Ron went even paler and Luke didn't look too good either.

'Wow,' said Bree appreciatively.

'See what I mean? We'll have no problem,' Ginny said confidently, and Bree could only agree.

'I HAVE A PLAN!' called Ron, and everybody looked at him. 'Oops, did I just say that out loud?'

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Ron slammed the huge book onto the table, creating clouds of dust.

'What's that?' asked Luke, coughing and fanning his hands.

'This, my dear friends, is a book,' Ron said.

'Yes, thanks Ron, but I think we'd got that far,' Harry said, grinning.

'But it isn't just any book. It's a book all about women,' Ron said, his tone reverent as he gazed at it. 'It'll tell you all you need to know about the female sex.'

'Speaking of the female sex, I haven't seen Lavender around for a while,' Harry said casually.

'Oh, we broke up,' shrugged Ron indifferently.

'What? Why? When?' asked Harry and Luke.

'Well, I kind of fancy someone else,' he said, going scarlet. Harry dropped the subject, having a good idea abut who the 'someone' might be. Luke cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

'And this comes into your plan how?'

'Well,' said Ron, 'we need to get information out of the girls, yes?'

'Yes,' chorused Luke and Harry.

'This book will tell us how!' Ron said triumphantly, stabbing his finger at the book.

'Well, then, what are you waiting for?' asked Harry, and he flipped the book open, filling the air with yet more dust. Ron ran his finger down the contents page.

'Look at this! It's got everything! There's a chapter on first dates, what to do when you ask a girl out, and… ah ha!' Ron grinned and pointed at the chapter. 'There we go. Chapter 8, how to find out their deepest secrets!'

'There's a chapter called that?' asked Luke, amazed, looking over Ron's shoulder at the page.

'Page 65, page 65,' Ron muttered feverishly, as he flicked through the huge book to the chapter. He found the page, looked around warily, and began to read it out quietly to Harry and Luke. 'If you want a girl to be like putty in your hand, one way is to seduce them.'

Luke and Harry exchanged raised eyebrows.

'This book was in the library!' asked Harry, astonished. Ron ignored him, and carried on.

'There are several techniques that can be employed, depending on the height of the girl, the features and the personality. For tall girls…'

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The Doctor was in the TARDIS, stroking the levers and murmuring encouragingly to the machine. He wouldn't want the TARDIS to think he'd abandoned it. And also it was quite a nice change to have some intelligent conversation.

The TARDIS didn't actually talk back, of course, but the Doctor felt like she understood everything he said, and it felt quite nice to be understood. He was thankful it was the holidays, as Mondays for him were the worst day. First he'd have the Slytherin sixth year. Those two boys Crabbe and Goyle were going to be the death of him! At the very though of the answers they'd given to the most simple question, the Doctor threw his hands up and whacked his head on the console.

At least he had Bree and Luke at the end of the day. It made a nice change from the monosyllabic students he usually had to put up with. The first years were actually quite bright, the second years were good too, the third years were pretty quiet, the fourth years were more interested in the Bunsen burners and the fifth years were blooming rude. The sixth years he despaired over, and the seventh years tended to put themselves above anything not in their NEWT's, so not much lesson participation there.

Today it had been the first day of the Christmas Holidays, so he'd spent most of his time skulking around Bree, trying to get a good look at her necklace. He'd been spotted a couple of times, but overall he thought it went well.

He couldn't get his head round Bree. She was too clever for a human, as she was almost as good as Luke. Any normal brained person wouldn't present much of a challenge to him, but Bree kept him on his toes. She also felt… familiar, like he'd seen her before. She had always been comfortable with him as well.

The Doctor banged his head on the console, before deciding it would be safer for the TARDIS, and his brain cells, if he went back to his office.

As he trudged through the slushy snow covering the path, feeling the biting cold seeping through his converse, he contemplated Bree, until he got a headache and moved his thoughts elsewhere.

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The boys had shot off after breakfast, gabbling something about needing to go to the library.

'The library!' Hermione snorted. 'How can they find out what we're trying to do in the library?'

'They won't, so we're fine, just like I said,' said Ginny, tossing her hair over her shoulder confidently.

Bree was getting very excited.

'Let's split up and get the stuff we need now! While the boys are gone! Then, we can hide it in our dormitory.'

'Good idea,' said Hermione. 'So, Ginny, you go and get nail varnish from our dormitory, Bree, you're going to the room of requirement and I'm going to the kitchens!' she finished brightly.

'Let's go!' said Ginny, and they went their separate ways. Bree almost ran to the room of requirement. She found a large box in the room full of sleepover stuff, like magazines, so she shrunk it and slipped it in her pocket.

Her journey to the Gryffindor Common room wasn't so smooth, however. Turning round a corner, she walked straight into Malfoy and his two thugs. Harry and Ron had warned her about them, and she tried to pass unnoticed.

'Oh, look. It's the new girl. The muggle.' Draco sneered at her, blocking the corridor.

'Excuse me,' she said, trying to dodge past.

'Oh, I don't think so, muggle,' he sneered, and motioned to Crabbe and Goyle. They each grabbed one of her arms and twisted it behind her back. It hurt like hell but she didn't cry out. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing they'd hurt her.

'We don't think a muggle should have been let in the school, do we Crabbe, Goyle?' Draco sneered. Crabbe and Goyle twisted her arms further behind her back, forcing her body back. Draco drew closer.

'Well well, what have we here?' He grabbed the chain of her necklace and pulled it out from underneath her robes. 'A locket.' He inspected the fine engravings on the silver necklace, before yanking on it hard. The chain snapped and he moved back, holding the locket in one hand. 'But what's in it, I wonder?' He flicked it open, and Bree convulsed suddenly. She could here an ethereal song, reverberating in her head. It hurt, it was too much. She felt a stab of pain in her chest, and her head hurt so very badly…

'MALFOY!' The shout came from two directions. Draco jumped, and snapped the locket shut. He threw it at Bree, who had collapsed when Crabbe and Goyle let go.

The Doctor came storming up, and Luke was close behind him.

'Come with me, young man. And you two,' he growled at Crabbe and Goyle. They slouched off after him.

' Bree, are you OK?' Luke rushed over and helped her up. She groaned and doubled over, clutching her chest. 'What's the matter?' Bree suddenly looked up, confused.

'I don't know. The pain just, went.'

'Did Malfoy hurt you?' Luke almost growled. Bree shook her head, and bent to pick up her necklace.

'No, but her broke the chain, look!' It was snapped, by the force he'd used to yank it off her neck. 'Could you fix it for me?' she asked, holding it out to him. He took it, and she turned round, moving her hair off her neck so he could put it on. He gasped when he saw the red welt.

'He did hurt you!' He ran a finger along the red line, and Bree shivered. 'Sorry.' He put the chain around her neck gently, and fixed the ends so it stayed on.

'Thanks,' she said, and she turned around to smile at him. Luke gulped, and thought back to what the book said.

'So, what are you girls planning?' he asked, smiling slightly. She grinned.

'Nothing you need worry about.'

_Slowly but surely back them against a wall, so they can't make a quick exit. Trap them with an arm against the wall._

Luke somehow managed to arrange them so Bree's back was very close to the stone wall.

'Why don't you want to tell us? Is it something you don't want us to know?' he asked, leaning closer to her and resting his arm on the wall. He was very close. He saw her breathing hitch slightly. He himself was having a little trouble breathing. He was so close, he could smell her shampoo. It was a very nice smell.

'Umm,' she breathed, her eyes slightly foggy. Was he really having this affect on her? And here he was, thinking she would laugh at him.

Bree was having a little trouble with coherent thought, and she struggled to answer.

'We were just… pretending,' she gasped, her head light from lack of oxygen. 'Just to make you guys nervous.'

'Oh, OK.' Luke stepped back.

'I was just going…' Bree pointed and then scratched her neck awkwardly.

'I'm going that way,' said Luke, gesturing in the opposite direction.

'Oh. See you.' Luke watched her trip down the corridor, before heading back to the library to report his findings to Ron and Harry.

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'Oh my GOD!' Bree shrieked as she ran into the girl's dormitories. Hermione and Ginny were already there, both with dazed expressions on their faces.

'Hey Bree. Did they get you too?' said Hermione, who seemed to be in slightly better shape than Ginny, who was having trouble enunciating.

'Yup. But I didn't give it away,' Bree said proudly.

'Me neither. I told them we were just pretending, to scare them,' said Hermione.

'Me too! That's good.'

'It's very out of character,' said Hermione thoughtfully. 'They must have really been rattled by our secret planning.'

'Umm, guys?' said Ginny, looking up at them from the bed with big brown eyes. 'I kind of told Harry about the sleepover.'

'What?' Hermione and Bree both shrieked.

'I'm sorry!' wailed Ginny, 'but I just couldn't think! You know I've fancied Harry for ages…'

'Well, hopefully they will just think you were lying, if Bree and I both told Ron and Luke we were just pretending,' said Hermione. 'Don't worry, Ginny. We'll just have to be extra careful.'

**A/N: As I said, kind of fluffy. The book in question does exist, but I changed the name. Me and my friends had a good giggle about it one sleepover. So, I've had three reviews, after six chapters. Please tell me what you like, what you don't, because I can't read minds, unlike Edward Cullen. So telling me would be a good idea. Just don't be too harsh in your criticisms. Thank you. And the random ddddddddddddpppppppppppppppp means different place or different person, basically scene change, as the dots I use don't show up sometimes. So I'm avoiding confusion this way.**


	8. Intrusion

**A/N: Chapter 8, Intrusion. I've got five reviews, which are lovely. Thank you goddess of all daleks, teamjacob-89 and 4w350m3. You guys make my day! **

'What on earth are you doing, man-handling a fellow student like that!' the Doctor shouted at Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. 'I will tell your head of house, Professor Snape, and you will be serving detention with me for the next few weeks, until I decide you have learnt your lesson. I will expect to see you in my office at seven o'clock each day as soon as the Christmas holidays are over, and ten o'clock in the morning on Saturdays…'

'But sir…' protested Malfoy. The Doctor silenced him with a look.

'50 points from Slytherin, now get out of my sight!' They all scurried off, Malfoy giving him a venomous look from the doorway.

The Doctor sighed and sat heavily in his desk chair. He had felt something when Malfoy had opened Bree's locket; a pulse of energy containing information and memories, and the secret of eternal life. There was no doubt now what Bree was, and the Doctor didn't particularly want to break the bad news to her. But if he had felt the energy pulse, so might've others. The pulse was very strong.

The Doctor hoped the shield around Hogwarts would be enough to mask the energy, but if it hadn't, a lot of aliens would be very interested in that locket. And if they came, he would have to tell Bree. And that was something he definitely didn't want to do.

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'I've put extra charms on the door, so even if they manage to get up the stair case, which I highly doubt, they won't be able to come in,' said Hermione triumphantly, sitting down next to Ginny. 'Who wants their nails painted first?'

'Ooh, me!' squealed Bree. Ginny had shown Bree her collection of magical nail varnish, such as Constellation, which looked like the night sky, complete with stars. 'Can I have the one with the Gryffindor Lion on?'

As Hermione carefully painted Bree's fingernails, Ginny flicked through some magazines.

'Look! A quiz! Find out your perfect man! I'll ask you guys the questions. Ready?' They both nodded. 'Number one: Do you prefer a guy to be taller or smaller than you?'

'Taller, definitely,' said Hermione. 'It would ruin the romantic moment if he had to go and get a stool to kiss me.'

'It'd be like dating Colin Creevey!' giggled Ginny.

'I'm guessing he's the tiny guy with the annoying titchy brother,' said Bree. 'I'd like my man to be taller than me, too, but not majorly. Then I'd ruin the romantic moment by having to go get a stool.'

'Same,' said Ginny. 'Ok, number two: What colour hair do you prefer?'

'Brown,' said Bree. 'Preferably light.'

'Red,' said Hermione, and then she flushed.

'Would this red-headed, tall guy who's perfect for you happen to have freckles, a long nose, big hands and have a name starting with R and ending with on?' asked Bree, mischievously.

'No! Umm, well… yes,' mumbled Hermione, as Ginny burst out laughing.

'Hermione fancies ickle Ronnikins! I'd become a nun if I were you, Hermione, Ron will never catch on. He's a prat,' said Ginny.

'Yes, but he's my prat,' sighed Hermione dramatically, putting her hands to her heart. The three girls burst out laughing.

'So, Ginny, I'm guessing your perfect guy would have black hair and green eyes, and possibly a scar?' said Hermione, focussing the attention on Ginny instead.

'I told you, I've given up on him,' said Ginny, sadly.

'You seemed in pretty bad shape after his little show today, Gin,' said Bree, admiring her new nails.

'I said I'd given up on him, not that I'd got over him,' Ginny sighed, and dove her hand into the pile of food Hermione had brought from the kitchens. 'I need chocolate to cheer up my broken heart.'

'He'll come round,' said Bree, patting Ginny on the back as she scoffed Honeydukes Chocolate.

'Gin, face it, you've got more of a chance than me,' said Hermione. Ginny nodded.

'That's true.'

'I think I might join you with the chocolate eating,' said Hermione. 'Bree, could you paint my nails with that Constellation stuff?'

'Sure,' said Bree, 'but chuck me some of that chocolate, would you?'

'Next question,' said Ginny briskly, picking up the magazine again. 'What colour eyes would your perfect guy have?'

'Well, we all know what you're going to say, eh Ginny?' said Hermione with a sly grin.

'Oh shut up,' said Ginny, chucking a pillow at her. 'Well, Ron has brown eyes, so they're you're favourite. Bree, what're yours?' Bree sighed dreamily.

'Blue.'

'Hmm, blue eyes and brown hair, that's a very odd combination.' Ginny grinned. 'Doesn't somebody we know look like that?' Hermione realized suddenly who Ginny meant.

'Let me guess. His name begins with an L…'

'Shut up, guys!' squealed Bree, attacking them with her pillow. The magazine was abandoned, as the two other girls scrambled to get their pillows as well.

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Three pink string-like objects slipped from under the door, and went back to the three boys sitting in the corridor.

'Well,' said Ron, blowing out a breath. 'That was interesting.' Three abandoned broomsticks lay beside them.

'How much do you think they would kill us if they found us here?' asked Harry.

'They all fancy us though, don't they? They wouldn't kill us,' said Ron. Harry shook his head, his floppy black hair falling into his eyes.

'I wouldn't put it past Ginny to kill us,' he said, and then he grinned. 'She still fancies me!'

'But she gave up on you,' pointed out Luke.

'I'll just have to show her I'm not a hopeless case. Hermione thinks you're a lost cause, though, Ron, so I'd better start changing her mind if I were you.'

'What should I do?' asked Ron, sounding rather panicked. 'I only know how to tease her!'

'Try complimenting her sometimes. Make her feel like a girl,' said Harry.

'Who turned you into the fountain of knowledge?' asked Ron, grumpily. But he grudgingly agreed that it was good advice.

'You're very quiet, Luke. I thought you fancied Bree?' asked Harry.

'I do. I just don't know what to do now.'

'Well, this afternoon was a good start. Can you believe I had such a big affect on Ginny?' said Harry, almost squeaking with joy. Luke put the extendable ear back to his own ear.

'They're talking again.' This shut Harry up, and he and Ron immediately put the string in their ears once more.

'…read out the next question, Ginny?' Hermione's voice came into hearing.

'I don't think we should listen any more,' whispered Harry, tugging the extendable ear and putting it in his pocket. 'I think we should tell them we fancy them tonight. I mean, we know they're not going to refuse, don't we?'

'Ok,' said Ron, preparing himself.

'I think it's time for a little action,' whispered Harry, as he stealthily drew his wand and took the invisibility cloak out of the front of his jumper.

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'Ok. Number four: Clever or dumber than you?'

'Well…' but that was as far as Hermione got, as, suddenly, the lights went out. Bree shrieked, and Ginny cursed as she stubbed her toe on a nearby four-poster.

'Shhh,' said Hermione, standing stock still. They heard the door creak open, but nobody came in.

'We know you're under the invisibility cloak, guys,' said Hermione, trying to sound like she wasn't scared. It didn't really matter if they were under the invisibility cloak or not, it was so dark she couldn't see her hand in front of her face. Then she nearly screamed in surprise when she felt breath on her cheek.

'Hermione, it's Ron.' She still couldn't see him, but a hand gripped her arm and dragged her out of the room and into the corridor.

'Ron, what…'

'Hermione, I have something to tell you.' Ron took a deep breath, and leaned forward.

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'What the…' Bree felt herself being pushed into the adjoining bathroom by invisible hands. Terrified out of her wits, and having sudden flashbacks to when she was attacked, she squealed and began to fight back.

'Ouch! Bree! It's me.' Luke tapped his head with his wand, and the disillusionment charm ended. He let go of her arm and rubbed his chin. 'That really hurt!' he winced.

'Well what was I supposed to do? Be dragged away without doing anything? Oh, stop being such a baby.' She dragged his hand away from his chin, and inspected it. 'Actually, I got you pretty bad, didn't I?' As she leant closer to his chin, he turned his head, and their lips met.

dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddpppppppppppppppppppppppp

Ginny heard Hermione and Bree being dragged off. Trying to keep quiet, she reached for her wand, when she realized she was wearing her pyjamas.

'Damn,' she swore, and then she bit her lip, horrified. It took all her willpower not to swear again, but she'd already blown it. Whoever was in the room would have most certainly heard her.

Suddenly, the lights flicked on.

Harry was standing by the door, looking a bit sheepish.

'I'm sorry if I scared you Ginny,' he said.

'Where are Hermione and Bree?' She asked.

'Oh, err, Ron and Luke…'

'Dragged them off to have a snogging session, yes, I thought so,' interrupted Ginny. Then she grinned slyly. 'And what were you going to do?'

Harry grinned, and stepped closer.

'How about I show you,' he said, as the gap between them closed.

**A/N: Now… review!**


	9. Love and Loss are both Four Letter Words

**Chapter 9**

**Love and Loss are both four letter words**

The next day Luke and the Doctor started working on the TARDIS. The ship had been 'resting' for a while, according to the Doctor and was now ready to be fixed. The Doctor, however much preoccupied with the thoughts of Bree's necklace and the TARDIS, couldn't help notice noticing that Luke seemed to have a permanent little grin on his face, that had not been there before. In fact, he almost looked like a normal teenage boy.

'Why do you look like the cat that's got the cream?' asked the Doctor, after mulling over the possibilities in his head. 'It's good to see you're not homesick, but you're just unnaturally happy.'

Luke blushed, and opened his mouth when a huge explosion was heard from outside.

'What the…?' asked the Doctor, and they both rushed to the doors of the TARDIS. Racing outside, they saw a hole in the ground where a tree used to be and a very embarrassed Bree.

'Whoops,' she said, poking the charred hole with her toe. She looked sheepishly at the Doctor. 'Errr, I didn't mean to…' she gestured towards the hole.

'How did you manage that?' asked the Doctor, amazed.

'I had some Weasley's Wizard Wheeze's exploding powder, and I tripped, so I dropped it, and, well…' she looked at the hole where the tree had been. 'Hey, Luke, you coming to Hogsmeade?'

'Yeah,' he said, bounding over and putting an arm around her shoulders. The Doctor suddenly realized the cause of Luke's smile.

'You can go Luke. I think we've nearly finished that part, anyway.'

'Ok,' he said, and they both headed up to the village. The Doctor grinned at their retreating backs, and, still shaking his head and chuckling, he went back into the TARDIS.

**********

Bree and Luke met up with the others after emptying Honeydukes of half its sweets.

'Got enough chocolate there, guys?' asked Harry, grinning, his eyebrows raised.

'It's always good to stock up,' said Bree. 'Now, do you want to go for a butter beer in the Three Broomsticks, or shall we just go back to the castle? It's a bit chilly to just hang around in the street.'

As if the weather had heard her, a cold wind suddenly blew through Hogsmeade, attacking any exposed skin with a cold like knives.

'Maybe back to the castle,' shouted Ginny over the wind, 'It's freezing and I feel like relaxing in front of the fire.'

'Yeah. I've got a bit of a tummy-ache,' said Bree.

'But guys,' said Ron, staring wistfully at Zonko's.

'Come on, Ron,' said Hermione, dragging him after them. They battled against the wind on the way back to Hogwarts, as well as being pelted with leaves and grit from the path. One of the third year Slytherins also making their way back in front of their little group suddenly put his gloved hand to his face and shouted,

'My eye! I've got debris in my eye!' He swerved off the path and hit a tree. Bree giggled, and Harry looked at her.

'What?' she shouted, the wind whipping her voice away. 'The word debris is funny.'

They had just reached the Hogwarts gates where the TARDIS was, flanked by two winged boars, when a loud explosion behind them caused them to stop.

'OK, that definitely wasn't me,' said Bree, and they slowly turned around, to see most of Hogsmeade aflame.

'Death eaters!' shouted Harry, drawing his wand and looking grim. 'They're attacking Hogsmeade!'

'What's that?' Hermione shouted over the wind, pointing to a flying sphere hovering above the village, surrounded by smaller ones.

'That's not death eaters!' said Ron.

'No. It's much worse,' said Luke.

'Sontarans,' Bree and Luke said together, and they all watched in horror as the spheres descended on the screaming townsfolk.

'Oh no,' Ginny breathed, as they stood, frozen, watching the chaos. Suddenly, Bree started to run back towards Hogsmeade.

'Bree, NO!' Luke started to run after her, closely followed by the others. He took her down with a flying tackle, and grabbed her before she could run away again. 'There's nothing you can do,' he said, feeling his heart break as he looked into her glistening eyes and heard the dying screams from the village. She faced him and the others, her hair whipped out around her head by the wind so it looked like fire. 'We can't just let them die!' Her voice cracked and she turned once more towards Hogsmeade. Only to gasp in horror at the sphere that had landed on the path behind her. It opened like a fan, and Luke knew what would come out.

Ron drew his wand at the same time as Ginny and Hermione. Luke, remembering his, did the same. Only Bree stood quite unprotected in front of the sphere, her wand on the floor, having fallen out of her pocket when Luke tackled her.

Out of the Sphere climbed a humanoid shape, of about five ft., wearing dark armour and clutching a long black gun in its four-fingered hand.

'But it's tiny!' exclaimed Ron. The figure raised the gun.

'Sontar-HA!'

***********

The Doctor had his head under the main console when the first explosion rattled the TARDIS. He tried to get up, and in true comic book style, whacked his head on the underside of the console. He groaned, and wriggled out, grabbing his sonic screwdriver on the way.

'Bree, if that was you again!' He shouted, rubbing his head.

The doors opened before he got there, as though the ship was anxious to get him out. He halted as soon as he reached the charred hole that Bree had made. The column of smoke stretching into the sky on the horizon told him it definitely wasn't Bree, and his heart sank when he saw the ships above the village.

'Oh no, not here.'

**************

Ron shoved Hermione behind a tree as the jet of red energy shot from the gun towards her. The tree took the brunt of it and burst into flames. Harry and Ginny shot spell after spell at the Sontaran but none seemed to have any effect.

Luke was frozen as the gun was raised once more towards them. He knew how to stop it, but how? Then Bree snapped him out of it, by pointing behind it and shouting,

'Doctor!' The Sontaran wheeled round, and Bree punched the hole at the back of its neck. It went down like a ton of bricks.

'What in Merlin's name was that?' shrieked Hermione.

'Sontaran,' Bree said, rubbing her hand. 'Ouch, that killed.'

'How….how did you know... it….?' Luke gestured towards the fallen Sontaran. Bree looked confused.

'I don't know,' she said, her brow furrowed. 'I just… knew.'

'Can someone tell me what the hell just happened?' asked Ginny. A loud explosion from Hogsmeade punctuated her words.

'That is a Sontaran. An alien,' said Luke.

'They're a clone race, and they were grown using a tube stuck in their necks, like an umbilical cord,' said Bree, who looked surprised at the words coming out her mouth. 'An army that can never turn their backs on their enemies,' she said softly, looking down at it.

'So the back of their neck is their weakness?' asked Ginny.

'Do you think if we hit them with stunners or impediment jinx's there, it would knock them out?' asked Harry.

'Probably,' said Luke. 'They'd have to be pretty strong ones, though.' He looked thoughtful. 'I wonder why he turned around when Bree shouted for the Doctor? Surely Sontarans would never turn their backs, just in case it's a trick?'

'The Doctor is dreaded by even the Daleks. The Sontarans are nothing compared to them, and they know it. The Doctor has crushed them underfoot many times before, why would this time be any different? The oncoming storm.' Bree breathed in sharply, and then collapsed.

The Doctor appeared and caught her. His face was grim and he looked like an angry God.

'Go and help the villagers. But be careful!' he ordered. The others started off, but Luke didn't follow them. 'Luke, you can stay,' said the Doctor, before he lifted Bree into his arms as if she weighed not much more than a feather, and carried her to the TARDIS.

'What's the matter with Bree?' Luke asked, tagging after him. The Doctor didn't answer until they were in the TARDIS and Bree was lying on the mesh floor.

'She's a Time Lord.'

'What? But she's only got one heart! How could she be…'

'Do you know what this is?' The Doctor asked, bending down and picking up the locket still around Bree's neck. Luke shook his head. 'This is a capsule where Time Lords put their consciousness, when they need to hide. It turns them into a human, with fake memories of a human life.'

'So it's got her memories of being a Time Lord then? But how come she remembered the Sontarans? And he said something about Daleks, and that they feared you. She called you the oncoming storm.' Luke gasped in realization. 'Some of the consciousness of Time Lord Bree's been let out! Who was it?'

'Malfoy,' said the Doctor. 'He stole it and opened it. I managed to stop him, but some escaped. It's what's brought the Sontarans. The energy released brought them here like a shark to blood. The amount of energy, all the memories of the Time Vortex and the knowledge a Time Lord has would be enough to power their ships for eternity, not to mention give them the power to live forever and they would be able to travel in time.'

'But the released energy would go into Bree, wouldn't it?' asked Luke.

'Her human body wouldn't be able to cope with a millionth of the power. Some would, giving her painful stomach cramps…'

'She said she had a stomach ache…'

'And the rest is just hanging around, waiting until the rest is released. I thought the energy pulse around Hogwarts would be enough to shield the energy, and perhaps it was, but when she went to Hogsmeade, well…'

'So why don't we open it? Then the Sontarans wouldn't be able to get it, and she'd be herself again!'

'If she gets back her Time Lord self, she won't be Bree anymore. She'll be someone else. The Time Lord she used to be. Not Bree the human.' The Doctor looked sadly at Luke. 'She won't feel the same things.'

Luke looked at Bree. He felt more for her than he'd ever felt for any girl before, and he didn't want to lose it.

'We could always keep her human, and hide the locket…' the Doctor tried vainly to think of alternatives.

'No,' said Luke, hearing his voice break. 'The energy in her human body will kill her if she doesn't change! You know that.'

'I forget how clever you are sometimes. You look just like a normal boy.'

'That's what the Bane wanted. Just open it!'

'You do it,' said the Doctor, taking the locket off Bree and handing it to Luke. He put his finger on clasp, but paused.

'Who is she?'

'I don't know.' The Doctor looked sad, but also happy. Luke knew why. He was no longer the last Time Lord. He wasn't alone. Luke felt a mixture of sadness and bittersweet happiness as he looked down at Bree. He knew he would still love her, even if she didn't love him anymore. He loved her. A different love than the one he felt for Sarah Jane, his mum, and different for the one he felt for his friends, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and the ones he'd left behind, Clyde, Maria and Rani.

It was the first time he'd felt it, and he was going to lose it. He gritted his teeth, and opened the locket.


	10. Rodageitmososangsulves

**Chapter 10**

**Rodageitmososangsulves**

The golden light wended its way out the Locket towards Bree, and Luke turned his face away before the intense light blinded him. Though they were inside the TARDIS, a wind picked up and ruffled Luke's hair as the light ringed Bree, creating an ethereal glow. Haunting music filled the TARDIS, and the Doctor had his eyes closed, with a smile on his face.

Luke gasped as Bree rose from the ground, and was suspended in the air, before the wind died and she was set gently down on her feet. The light soaked into her like water into a sponge, and the music faded. Bree swayed, and then opened her eyes. They glowed for a few seconds before that light too disappeared.

She blinked, and looked around, her eyes falling on the Doctor.

'Doctor! You found me!' She ran over and almost bowled him over in a hug.

'Roda! Is that you?' he asked, laughing happily. Luke felt kind of left out.

'Yup! I escaped! You did too, it seems.'

'Well, I didn't so much escape as cause it…' She looked at him sternly.

'I don't want you to tell me why. I imagine you had a good reason at the time.'

'Well…'

But Bree, or Roda, had now turned her attention to Luke.

'Hello Luke,' she said, looking at him sadly. 'My name is Rodageitmososangsulves, but you can call me Roda. Most people do.'

'Well, your name is rather long,' said the Doctor, coming up behind her.

'And yours is strange. The Doctor! I ask you. Dad would have had a fit. That lovely name he chose for you and you changed it to the Doctor…'

'Mum didn't mind…'

'Yes, but she was human…'

'You're…..you're brother and sister?' stammered Luke.

'Yes. But what about the Sontarans? Come on! We need to go and… Oi, Doctor, do you have a spare screwdriver?' He retrieved one from one of his many pockets and chucked it at her, which she caught with one hand without even turning. 'Luke, are you coming?' She grabbed his hand and began to run towards Hogsmeade.

The Doctor stayed in the TARDIS, searching for the Locket Luke had dropped. He had a feeling it would come in handy.

**************

Luke felt a bit strange, holding Roda's hand. It was like she was Bree, but she wasn't Bree, at the same time. Roda seemed to realize what was going on in his mind. She squeezed his hand.

'You know…. I still have…. All of Bree's …. Memories…' she panted as they ran. She grinned. Luke went red and looked at his shoes. He found this to be quite tricky as they were running.

'Look at the village!' she shouted, suddenly, and Luke looked. It was a horrible sight. Bodies lay everywhere, and more people were being taken down every second by flashes of red. A few Sontarans lay on the floor, but most were laughing and shooting as they walked through the remains of the village.

Luke scouted for the others.

'There!' he said, pointing at the ruins of a house. Harry and Ginny were crouched behind it, covered in dirt and looking a bit worse for wear.

'Over here!' Ginny called them over.

'What should we tell them?' Luke asked Roda.

'It's too much to explain. For the moment, I'm Bree,' she said, and they joined them behind the wall.

'Have you seen Ron and Hermione?' asked Harry.

'No, sorry,' said Roda, but they stopped talking as a Sontaran came round the corner. Roda immediately sprang into action. She knocked the gun out his hand and used it to hit the Sontaran on the back. She then chucked the gun to Luke.

'You guys keep holding off the Sontarans, me and Luke will go and do some sabotage,' she said, and then Luke found himself being dragged out from behind the wall.

'Run as fast as you can to that ship,' Roda pointed, and she shot off. Luke followed. It was like doing an odd sort of gauntlet, dodging pieces of wood, bricks, Sontarans, and (Luke tried not to look) dead bodies. He thought he saw a little girl, but he didn't stop. He knew that if he did, he wouldn't be able to keep going.

Various students who had come up to Hogsmeade for the day were also fighting the Sontarans.

'Aim for the back of the neck!' he shouted as he went past. He didn't know if they'd heard, but a few Sontarans went down after that.

After what felt like an age he reached the ship. Roda was already there, not looking out of breath at all. He wasn't either, surprisingly. He suspected that the adrenaline had kicked in.

'The ship looks pretty deserted. The Sontarans are probably all out terrorizing the villagers,' she said. She turned the sonic screwdriver on and pointed it to the door. Nothing happened. Luke remembered when the Sontaran had come to Earth, and he and his friends had fought it. He looked around and saw a hand plate, with four fingers. He put his hand on it, joining his index finger and thumb together, and the door opened.

'Nice one,' said Roda, and they walked in cautiously. 'Is it just me, or is it too quiet?'

'I'd rather it was quiet than heaving with Sontarans,' said Luke.

'At least we'd know where they were.'

They walked in silence for a while.

'What are we actually looking for?' asked Luke.

'Some sort of control room. I just want to sabotage them. They are one of the reasons Bree had to die.'

'That and Malfoy,' Luke said. They walked in silence for a while. Then Luke caught sight of an open door, with what looked like a control room.

'In here!' He dragged her in and shut the door. Well, he thought, that makes a change. Once in, Roda made a beeline for the controls, and immediately got out her screwdriver.

'Is there any way we can stop their guns working, or something?' he asked, joining her at the console.

'Look in the primary cell,' she said. Luke did, but Roda was too busy trying to explode all the small shuttles in the area. Her sonic screwdriver was between her teeth, and she had a look of intense concentration on her face. Luke had to swallow and focus his mind. He kept up a mantra in his head, _she's not Bree, she's not Bree,_ and he concentrated on taking the Sontaran's guns out of action.

'Yes! They've all suddenly combusted,' said Roda, and did a little victory dance. She turned, and her smile fell.

'Well, hell.'

Luke turned, and his heart sank. Behind them were at least a dozen Sontarans, all clutching guns. He started edging, slowly, to the button that would complete the combination needed to stop the guns working.

'Step away from the console, half-forms,' one said. Roda looked mutinous, but did as it said. Luke was desperate. He wondered if he could make it to the button before they shot. He doubted it, but he had to, to save the remaining villagers and Hogwarts students. It would make Roda and the Doctor's job easier if their guns were out of action.

He hovered for a second, and Roda caught his eye. She nodded and jerked her head towards the button. That decided it. Then everything happened very quickly.

Luke lunged for button.

The front Sontaran fired.

Luke pushed the button and watched in horror as Roda stepped into the red beam, her back to the Sontaran. She threw him the screwdriver and the shot hit her from behind. She fell, agonizingly slowly and hit the floor with a loud thump.

Luke stood there holding the screwdriver, looking at Roda's body. The Sontarans firing their guns, but nothing was happening. He'd done it. But at a terrible cost.

He was suddenly angry. Luke raised the screwdriver and pointed it at the Sontarans, and flicked the switch. There was a crackling noise and the Sontarans were covered in what looked like red lightening. After a few seconds of writhing and twitching, they all lay dead on the floor. Luke felt the bile rise in his throat. He'd killed them. But then, they'd killed Roda. So maybe it was alright. Looking out the window, he saw it had affected every Sontaran in Hogsmeade, too. Everyone was safe.

Luke ran over to Roda. By some miracle, she wasn't dead.

'Roda! Roda, I'm sorry.' Roda looked at him, and smiled. He took her hand and she squeezed it, before her eyes closed.

'You knew it was going to happen! You knew and you still told me to do it!'

Luke staggered back, as suddenly Roda was surrounded by white light. There was a rushing sound, and the light went as quickly as it came.

'Don't worry, Luke. I'm a Time Lord. I'll live forever.'

**A/N: Another chapter. I hope you enjoy it enough to drop me a line and tell me how it was.**


	11. The List of the Dead

**The List of the Dead**

'Of course, you regenerated! And you stayed the same!'

'Not exactly. I now have a small mole on my left ear.'

'Yes, but you didn't completely change!'

'Well, I couldn't just leave you, could I?' She smiled and got up from the floor. 'I've already taken Bree from you.' There was an awkward silence.

'Yes, well. I've got you now, haven't I?' said Luke. Roda grinned.

'Yes, you've got me. And Time Lords kiss so much better,' she said, and she kissed him hard on the mouth.

A few seconds, or maybe even minutes later, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione burst through the door. They broke apart abruptly.

'Nice to see you're celebrating,' said Ron. Luke quickly removed his hands, which had somehow travelled to Roda's waist.

'We were celebrating a resurrection,' said Roda, smiling.

'Of what?'

'Love.'

o0o

The Doctor wiped his hands on his trousers and moved on to his next patient. Leaving the kids to get rid of the Sontarans, he decided to live up to his name and help the fallen. Nothing could be done for those who'd been hit by the Sontaran's guns, but many were injured from the falling buildings and the starting explosions.

Even though he was surrounded by death, and that made him feel angry and depressed, he still had a little fluttering feeling of happiness under his ribcage, somewhere between his two hearts. His sister, his little Roda, who he'd thought was dead along with the rest of his family and race, was alive and happy and somewhere in the vicinity. Well maybe not happy, but most definitely alive and somewhere in the vicinity, unless she'd run away to Brazil or something.

Just then a third year burst into the barely standing building they were using to house the wounded.

'The Sontarans! They've all just died!'

'What?'

Everyone, except those on the floor, writhing in pain, ran outside to see.

'What actually happened?' the Doctor asked the third year.

'Their guns didn't work, and then they backfired and killed themselves!' The ground was littered with dead bodies, the majority wearing black armour.

'What do you think happened?' Everyone was asking each other. The Doctor grinned and said under his breath,

'I think Luke and Roda happened.'

He saw Harry and Ginny meet with Ron and Hermione, before running off towards the main ship. The Doctor went back inside, remembering he still had patients to attend to.

o0o

'How many dead?' asked Roda gravely. The others looked down.

'Almost three quarters of the village, and lots of students have been found,' Ginny gulped, 'dead, and quite a few are MIA. They think loads of people will be buried underneath fallen buildings.' Luke felt immediately bad. Here he was, feeling happy, when loads of others had died! Including Bree…

'Bree, are you OK? You look different…' Hermione gave Roda a piercing look.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' she said, winking at Luke. 'In fact, I feel better than ever. I feel like a whole new person.' Luke snorted and had to pretend he'd sneezed.

'Bless you,' Roda said, smirking.

'We should go back to the castle,' said Harry. 'Help get the bodies of students back…'

'Good idea,' said Ron, and they all trudged off, not very excited at the prospect of carrying their dead housemates and fellow students back to Hogwarts. As they walked, Luke felt a hand slip into his. He looked at Roda, who smiled and squeezed his hand.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered.

'For dying on me and scaring the life out of me? Or for… you know…'

'Both,' she said.

'Don't worry about it. We've got much worse things to worry about now. And you're still kind of the same person, just…'

'With an extra heart?'

'I was going to say different, but what ever you say, oh Time Lady.'

Roda laughed, and whacked his arm.

'Shhh, they'll hear you,' she whispered into his ear, making it tingle as he felt her breath on his cheek. His smile faded when he saw the destruction of the village. There wasn't one building left fully standing, and the ground was littered bodies, not all Sontaran.

'Oh dear,' he heard Roda say, but before he had time to say anything the Doctor came rushing up.

'Luke, Ro…' Luke shook his head warningly at the Doctor. 'er, Bree! You stopped them!'

'Oh yeah! Course we did!' said Roda, and she held her hand up for a high five. Luke slapped her hand. 'We make quite a team.' If the others noticed the Doctor's slip up, they didn't mention it. Luke thought he saw Hermione's eyebrows travel a few millimeters up her forehead, but the others seemed to be preoccupied.

'If you're not busy, I think Hagrid needs help in the Three Broomsticks,' said the Doctor, and he gave Roda a quick one-armed hug once the others had turned.

'You regenerated?' he asked in a whisper.

'Yup. Slight issue with the Sontarans, but, unlike you, I can still choose what I want to be.'

'What's different?'

'I have a small mole on my ear.'

'You and Luke worked things out?'

'We've got passed a few obstacles, yes. I'm sorry I had to kill the Sontarans, I should have given them a choice, but there was really nothing else I could do…'

'Don't worry about it. They overstepped the mark. I understand.' The Doctor walked quickly back to the wreck of Honeydukes, and Roda stood there, feeling the guilt that had been gnawing at her insides lessen slightly. Then she saw Luke running back over, and it almost faded away completely.

'Are you coming?' he said loudly. The he whispered, 'What did the Doctor say?' Roda felt little shivers running down her spine.

'Just wanted to know why I regenerated.'

'Oh.' Luke looked a bit guilty.

'Don't worry about it,' she said, putting her arms around him. 'I knew what would happen, I told you to do it.' He returned her hug and Roda felt herself melt into his arms, but the moment was broken by a very annoying red-head.

'Come on guys, we've got to hurry!' Ron shouted over his shoulder.

'Coming,' said Roda, and she gave Luke a quick peck on the lips before breaking away, grabbing his hand and running after the others.

'The Three Broomsticks caved in, and they think loads of students are trapped,' Ginny told them.

'At least it kept them safe from the Sontarans,' said Harry darkly. 'You know, I never thought I'd ever see something worse than Death Eaters.'

'Never forget the size of the universe,' said Roda lightly, and Hermione looked at her.

'How did you know about the Sontarans earlier?' she asked shrewdly.

'Oh, err, the Doctor told me about them,' Roda said quickly. Hermione looked appeased by this knowledge, and turned away.

'Nice save,' whispered Luke. 'Are we ever going to tell them?'

'As soon as this is all over,' sighed Roda. 'No doubt they've lost loads of school friends today; I don't want to take Bree away from them as well.'

'When you tell them, I'll be there,' Luke promised. Roda felt a little bit better. But her mouth dropped open when she saw the Three Broomsticks. Or rather, what was left of it.

'That's… a lot of rubble,' said Ron. A few wizards Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny recognized from the Order of the Phoenix were picking their way across the rubble, searching for people underneath. Hagrid was also there, heaving the rubble around, making it look effortless.

'Let's go and help,' said Ginny, dragging Harry over. They all started to pick their way across the heap of rubble that was The Three Broomsticks.

Remus Lupin came over towards them.

'Harry! I'm so glad to see you're all ok. Your mum was having kittens!' he said to Ron and Ginny. They both groaned. 'Oh, hello. Sorry, I don't know your names,' he said to Luke and Roda.

'This is Luke, and that's Bree,' said Harry, 'They joined our year in the middle of last term.' Lupin shook their hands. On touching Roda, however, he gave a little start.

'Sorry, static shock.' He withdrew his hand rather sharply and looked at it. 'Hmm. Well, I better teach you the spell we're using to find them under the rubble. You wave your wand like this,' he demonstrated the sweeping motion, 'and say the words, _Homenum locatus_. Got it?' and with that he left, still rubbing his hand and sending strange glances at Roda over his shoulder.

They all began to cast the spell while walking slowly over the rubble. Luke made his way over to Roda.

'What was that all about?' he asked quietly, nodding his head towards Lupin.

'I think it was excess energy from my regeneration. I didn't use much, because I didn't really change much, you see?' she asked Luke nodded.

Hermione squealed suddenly. Her foot had slipped on a loose rock and she fell onto another large, very sharp, rock. She bit her lip to stop herself from swearing, and she tried to get back up. Unfortunately, her ankle seemed to have sprained, as it would not support her weight and she sank back down onto the rubble.

'Hermione!' Ron hurried over and helped her up. Harry started over too, when a shriek from Ginny made him stop.

'I… I think I've found someone!' She looked rather pale. 'I think they're…' she gulped, 'that they're… dead.' A few Order members rushed over and began to scoop up piles of rubble with their wands. Ginny was now completely white, her face contrasting oddly with her hair. Harry went over and caught her before she hit the ground as the body was discovered. Ron and Hermione gasped. It was Luna Lovegood, and she was dead.

As the day progressed, more and more bodies were found. It was soul destroying work, and only three people out of the twenty-five that had been in the Three Broomsticks were still alive. Roda found the first one. Shouting over to the others, she started to excavate the body. Neville was dragged out and presumed dead when all of a sudden, he began to cough and splutter, moments after Roda had freed his leg. Luke looked suspiciously at Roda. She looked tired and ill.

'What did you do?' he asked.

'He wasn't quite gone, so I used some of my regeneration energy.' She looked terrible, ashen-faced and worn out. 'I couldn't with Luna. She was already dead.'

A girl was found in the bathroom, who had been saved by the harder tiled walls and ceiling. The Hufflepuff, Megan Jones, was inconsolable at the death of her friends, Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, who had stayed at their table, and were found dead a few minutes later.

'So many people have died,' whispered Hermione, 'they're making a list and it just goes on and on.'

'We have to keep looking,' said Roda forcefully. 'I think that there are still some people trapped.'

'And we should find the bodies,' said Harry, looking sad, 'so we can return them to their families.' Ginny put an arm around his shoulder and Harry leant into her, screwing his eyes shut with pain.

'Is your scar hurting, Harry?' asked Hermione, looking concerned.

'I think Voldemort's found out about this. He wants to attack, while we're recuperating.'

'Brilliant, just brilliant,' groaned Ron. 'That's just what we need.

'Go and tell Dumbledore, Harry,' said Hermione. 'We'll stay here.'

Harry nodded.

'I'll come with you,' said Ginny quickly, and they set off towards the castle.

The searching continued. Those who couldn't perform the spell or who were still too much shock to do any magic helped out with the injured. Ron grinned over at Neville who seemed to be enjoying the attention he was getting from Megan Jones.

'At least someone's having a nice time,' he said, before turning back to excavating, with a slight grimace on his face.

Luke wandered over to the list tacked up on a half-destroyed wall, which used to be Honeydukes. A long list of names was on the sheet, a list that kept growing. Luke picked out a few names he knew from his year, Steven Cornfoot, Padma Patil, Su Li, Kevin Entwhistle, Tracey Davis, and Morag MacDougal. A few other names from other years he recognized, but as he hadn't been at the school for very long, he didn't know many others. Even as he watched, more names appeared at the bottom of the list.

_Terry Boot_

_Daphne Greengrass_

_Draco Malfoy_

Roda came over.

'It's terrible, isn't it?' He nodded, mutely.

'Yes.' He said. He couldn't quite bring himself to say anything else.

'Do you know what the worst thing is?' she asked, looking at him sadly. He shook his head. 'It wouldn't have happened if I had never come here. It would have been better if I'd died at Gallifrey. It's all my fault.'

**AN: Sorry about the long wait. Please review!**


	12. Ron

**Chapter 12**

**Ron**

Ron watched as Bree leant into Luke. There was something different about her, but what he couldn't put his finger on. The way she spoke, and acted, was somehow more … powerful.

People didn't think he was very perceptive, but he just noticed the useless things. He wasn't completely clueless. Emotions he couldn't do, but body language he could. And he knew that Bree had changed subtlety, her words and actions each carrying more meaning and weight, as though she had seen everything and knew everything.

Turning his attention back to Hermione, whom he was helping along, he noticed her face had gone white with pain.

'Hermione, are you ok?' He asked, worriedly.

'Yes, I'm…' She leant on her leg and her face went even whiter, a gasp escaped her lips and she crumpled. 'My ankle, I think I've…'

'You've probably fractured it,' said Remus, who had come over. 'Here.' He waved his wand, muttered a few words and the pain immediately left Hermione's face. Ron felt relief wash over him as Hermione cautiously put her foot down and didn't wince.

'Thanks, Remus,' she said, and Ron nodded fervently. Remus smiled and moved away, leaving them standing alone in the road. Hermione looked around shiftily, then leaned in to Ron's ear and whispered, 'is it just me, or does Bree seem… different, to you?'

Ron was relieved to here her say that. He now knew it wasn't just him going mad.

'Yeah, I'd noticed too. She's more… powerful, I 'spose.' Hermione nodded, a thoughtful look on her face.

'And remember when the Doctor called out to them in the street. He called her something beginning with 'Ro…'.'

'Rose?' asked Ron, thinking of his cousin's name.

'Mmmm. Rose. I like that name. Rose,' said Hermione, rolling the word round her mouth.

'Come on, let's see what they're doing over there,' Ron said, his curiosity getting the better of him, and he dragged Hermione over to where Luke and Bree were standing.

'What're you looking at?' he asked casually. He was surprised to see tear tracks on Bree's face, but he pretended not to notice.

'The list,' Luke croaked, gesturing towards the piece of parchment pinned to the bit of wall left standing. Ron looked, and saw a list of names. A list of the dead. As he watched, a few more names were scrawled on the sheet as though by an invisible hand, obviously added by Aurors finding more dead bodies in the wreckage.

'It's…horrible,' hiccupped Hermione, tears coursing down her cheeks. Ron wasn't really sure what to do, and shot a terrified glance at Luke, who jerked his head towards his own arm around Bree. Ron took this advice and gingerly placed his arm around Hermione. He still couldn't quite believe they were going out, and half-expected her to slap his arm away and tell him to stop being silly. To Ron's great relief, however, Hermione buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing silently.

'Shhh,' he murmured, using his free hand to stroke Hermione's bushy brown hair, which had gone almost grey with stone dust from the rubble. His own hair probably looked just as bad, and Luke and Bree also had prematurely grey hair.

Bree saw him looking and grinned slightly, but it looked out of place on her tear-streaked face.

'I know, the dust gets everywhere, doesn't it? _Scourgify_,' she said, pulling her wand out her pocket, and most of the dust disappeared. 'Oh well, better than nothing,' she said, and she stuck her wand in her back pocket, which, Ron noticed, had something else in it as well.

'What's that?' he asked.

'What? Oh, err… nothing,' she said hastily, turning away from Ron slightly, and slipping whatever it was into an inside pocket of her jacket. Ron knew it was _something, _but he didn't press the point. Now was not the time to argue.

'Do you think Harry and Ginny will come back to Hogsmeade?' asked Luke quickly, changing the subject. Ron narrowed his eyes slightly. So he was in on it too!

Hermione, who hadn't seen a thing because she had had her face pressed into Ron's shoulder, looked up and sniffed,

'Probably not, look! They're already heading back to the castle with stretchers.'

Ron glanced over his shoulder and saw Neville being levitated back by Megan Jones, along with some other people that he couldn't see over the haze of dust still in the air. The dust was quite thick, and hard to see through, and it also had the added disadvantage of giving everybody a loud racking cough every now and again. Luke himself was coughing at the time, and Ron flinched at the sound.

'Are you ok?' asked Ron, as his coughing had sounded extremely painful.

'Yep. It just feels like my throat has been ripped up,' he croaked, and Bree put his arm around him.

'It's this bloody dust,' she said, and cast the bubble head charm on both of them. Ron copied her and so did the others. Remus gestured towards the fleet of stretchers making their way to the castle, and Ron, getting his meaning, followed them with Hermione still leaning on his shoulder, back towards the gates flanked with winged boars.

Yes, he thought as they walked along, there was definitely something different about Bree. He decided to ask later, however, and he kept walking. Hermione shifted slightly on his shoulder, and he looked down into her face and smiled. His smile disappeared quickly when a stretcher was levitated past and he saw the body on it.

Lavender.

He'd gone out with her for a few weeks, and he had never liked her as much as Hermione, but her death was still a blow. Hermione saw where he was looking, and realized what he was thinking.

'I'm sorry Ron,' she said, and rubbed his arm comfortingly. He nodded, averting his eyes from Lavender's body. The two other stretchers that floated past them didn't shake him as much, but the sight of Crabbe and Goyle dead wasn't as pleasing as he'd imagined in many potion classes. Actually, all his potion classes.

'Is something wrong with the doors?' asked Hermione, craning her neck to see the crowd gathered around the front doors to the Entrance hall.

'Harry and Ginny are still outside! Look, you can see their hair,' Bree said. Ron squinted towards the crowd, and sure enough, he could see the bright red hair of his sister next to the black hair of his best friend, standing just outside the front doors.

'Why would they be locked?' asked Bree. As they got closer, Ron could see some teachers, who had gone to Hogsmeade trying to force the doors open.

'I dunno. S'never happened before,' he said, squinting to see what was going on. He could see Harry and Ginny quite clearly now, and there was also a brown-suited, converse-wearing person running towards them.

'Doctor!' Bree ran up to hug him. This seemed strange to Ron. He didn't think that was usual behaviour with teachers. And you'd never catch Snape hugging Malfoy, or McGonagall hugging Harry. It just wasn't natural.

'Doctor, what's happening?' asked Hermione.

'There's something, or somebody, blocking the doors. The teachers don't understand it, 'cause it's not done by magic.' The Doctor managed to say this while gasping for breath after his run.

'Screwdriver?' asked Bree. Ron cocked his head, confused.

'Nah. Deadlock seal.' Again this flew straight past Ron, and Hermione didn't look like she understood either, but Luke, who happened to be in on the secret, was looking worried.

'Who do you think it is?' he asked.

'Well, they'd have to be pretty clever, generating enough power to create a deadlock seal inside the pulse. They would've had to create a completely new power source, in the matter of minutes. If they weren't all dead, I'd have said Time Lords, but as it is…'

'It can't be them. Anyone else?' asked Luke.

'Everyone I know who'd have been able to do this is either dead or the other side of the Universe. Who else is there?' Bree ran her hand through her hair, clearly annoyed at not knowing.

'Wait a minute… there are more aliens in there? Other than the Sontarans?' asked Ron, trying to get his head round this new piece of information.

'Unless old Voldy has found a way to lock a door using amazing technology beyond anything on earth, then yes, that's aliens,' said the Doctor.

'Oh great,' huffed Ron. 'You get rid of one lot, and another, cleverer lot crop up somewhere else.'

'Story of my life,' said the Doctor, patting Ron on the back.

Harry and Ginny came running up as well.

'We can't get in!' said Ginny.

'We know.' Ron rolled his eyes.

'Are you getting anything from V-voldemort,' stammered Hermione.

'No. It's as if we both have a walkie-talkie, and his has been switched off. I'm not getting anything. Scar pains, visions, nothing.' Harry grimaced. 'Either he's dead, or has figured out a way to break the connection between us.'

'I think I'd rather go with the former,' said Ron. However much he joked, Ron was finding it difficult to hide his fear. Where was a powerful dark wizard when you needed one? He could have got rid of the aliens before Harry killed him!

They all jumped as a creaking groan announced that the doors were opening.

'What?' the Doctor exclaimed. Ron gulped. They started to run towards the doors.

'The first and second years! They're still in there!' called out Harry as he made a dash for the doors. Ron watched as Bree and the Doctor looked at each other, grinned, and rushed towards the doors, Bree grabbing Luke's hand as she went. Ron shook his head in confusion, but grabbed Hermione's hand and started to run too.

The mass of people and stretchers all flocked towards the gap. For some strange reason, everybody suddenly felt they had to get inside, and the resulting crush was terrifying. Ron kept hold on Hermione's hand as people and stretchers squished in next to them, heading for the bottleneck that was the doors.

Ron caught a glimpse of Megan Jones and Neville, now off a stretcher, being carried along by the crowd, and holding each other almost painfully close.

As soon as the huge mass of people was in the Entrance Hall, a creaking and grinding told them the doors were closing. Watching them, Ron felt strange, as though he would never see daylight again. He shook himself and told himself not to be stupid, and caught sight of red and black hair. With much pushing and shoving, and occasional elbow work, he got himself and Hermione to the front of the crowd, with Harry, Ginny, Luke, Bree and the Doctor.

Ron looked at the look of absolute terror and Bree's, Luke's and the Doctor's faces, and turned to look down the entrance hall.

What he saw almost made him laugh.

Pepper pot shaped robots, with eyestalks with blue lights on the end, and what looked like an egg whisker and a plunger attached to its body. There were at least a hundred of them, of what Ron could see. They looked like something his dad might make if locked in the garage for a day.

'Oh no,' whispered the Doctor.

One of the Robot things raised a whisk.

'Exterminate!' A blue light shot out of it, and hit Bree, who screamed, and Ron realized, in horror, that he could see her skeleton. Then the blue light stopped, and she fell to the floor, clearly dead. It was deathly quiet for a painful few seconds, and then the screaming started.

Ron felt like his eardrums were about to explode, but was surprised to see that Hermione wasn't screaming. She was drawing her wand, with such a look of determination and blazing courage that Ron felt himself fall in love with her all over again.

Then everything seemed to slow down, as though he was moving through treacle.

He heard Ginny scream, Harry yell, the Doctor shout, and saw the robots raise their whisk gun things towards the terrified crowd.

Blue light shot everywhere, and Ron saw Hermione sending hex after hex towards the robot in front of her.

He felt, rather than heard himself shout out a warning as the robot in front of her raised its gun up to Hermione. He was running towards Hermione, pushing her out the way with his long arms, as the blue light shot out of the robot.

He saw Hermione's mouth open in a scream, saw Harry, his faced anguished, and Ginny who had tears coursing down her cheeks. He saw the Doctor glance over his shoulder, Luke look up from the floor, where he knelt next to the fallen Bree, who seemed to be surrounded in golden light.

Then the blue light hit him, and after a moment of pain, excruciating pain that filled every nerve ending and made his head scream in protest, everything went quickly, mercifully black.

**AN: Now, please don't throw things at me for killing Ron! I promise everything will be answered near the end. Just keep reading and reviewing!**


	13. Harry

**Chapter 13**

**Harry**

Harry watched Ron fall as though in slow motion. He wasn't aware of anything except Ron lying on the stone flagged floor of the Entrance hall. Only one thing was in his head; get to Ron. If he got to Ron, everything would be ok. He lunged, but was knocked back by the Doctor, who was trying to get as many students behind him as possible. Bree was doing the same thing.

Bree?

Harry had seen Bree shot down beside him. He felt guilty that all he had thought at the time was that he was glad it hadn't hit Ginny. If Bree was still alive, did that mean Ron was too?

But the look on the Doctor's face was not promising. The aliens were shooting everyone, and as Harry watched, a few third years were shot and fell to the floor. The screaming was making his head hurt, and he clutched his head, disorientated by the noise. The small hands gently removed his from his head, and led him to the large crowd behind the Doctor. It was Ginny, her lovely face tear-streaked and grubby with dust, her eyes red and wet.

The noise abruptly stopped when all the Robots turned to face the Doctor and Bree, and fell still. The Doctor waved his stick menacingly.

'Ha! Didn't expect to see me here, did you? Daleks.' There was a muttering in the crowd. Then one of the 'Daleks' spoke in an electronic voice, two blue lights flashing at it did so.

'We are here for the pow-er source, Doc-tor.'

'Well, you're too late,' yelled Bree, triumphantly. The Dalek's glowing blue eyestalk swiveled to look at Bree.

'The Ro-da,' it said.

'No, not 'the' Roda, just Roda. I'm not a renegade, like him.' She jerked her thumb at the Doctor, who glanced at her, but kept his stick trained on the Daleks. 'And here's me thinking you were clever.'

'The Time-Lords are dead. Why are you still a-live?' asked the Dalek, who Harry guessed was the leader, as it was black, rather than the other's gold colour.

'I escaped. Same as you, obviously.' The something clicked in Harry's head. Hadn't Bree, or Roda as the Daleks called her, say something about the Doctor being the Dalek's worst fear? She said they called him the oncoming storm… It didn't suit what Harry knew about the Doctor, but he'd seen something in him today that was quite different to his usual happy-go-lucky self. It was something hard and blazing, not unlike Ginny. Thinking of Ginny, he quickly wrapped his arm around her. She'd just lost her brother, and Hermione had lost her boyfriend. He glanced at his bushy-haired friend. She still looked in shock, but Harry knew the tears would come soon.

Bree was still talking.

'How did you escape, then? It's not like a Dalek to run away.' She sneered at them.

'We did not run away,' said the black Dalek. 'We were sup-posed to go round be-hind the Time Lord ships, but every-thing was des-troyed be-fore we got there.'

Harry had a sudden thought. That's what Voldemort had planned to do here! But then, where was he?

'That's what you did again. Send in the Sontarans, promise them a share of the power, when you knew that we would get rid of them. You built their ships and guns so they were linked together, didn't you? So we would destroy them and do your dirty work, so you didn't have to share the spoils of war. Then, when we came back to recuperate, you would be here.' Bree thought out loud.

'You followed Voldemort in,' Harry suddenly shouted. 'And you killed him and his death-eaters.' Bree looked at him, impressed.

'Well done, Harry.'

'Where are all the younger students? And the teachers that didn't go to Hogsmeade?' asked Ginny, angrily. The Dalek slowly turned to look at her, and stayed silent. 'You've killed them, haven't you? Every single one.'

'We need help. Can anyone contact the ministry?' whispered Hermione. 'A few dozen Auror's would be very handy.'

'We're in a time stop,' Luke whispered. 'That's why they didn't let us in for a while. Anything inside this castle is stuck in time. They used technology scavenged from the Time Lords.'

'Time Lords?' asked Ginny.

'What the Doctor and Roda are,' said Luke impatiently. 'Anyway, the Daleks…'

'Bree's an alien? And her name is…' Hermione interrupted.

'Rodageitmososangsulves. She wasn't an alien, but she is now…'

'I thought there was something different about her,' said Hermione triumphantly. Then her face fell. 'I think Ron noticed as well.' She sniffed, and a few tears rolled down her cheek. 'I still can't believe he's… gone.'

'The Daleks put a Time stop around the castle so they could just go in and leave without any disturbance from other aliens.'

'Will everyone who died in the castle be alive… after the Time stop?' asked Ginny hesitantly. The sad look on Luke's face was pretty self-explanatory.

'But Bree…er…Roda survived!' Hermione had an almost fanatical gleam in her eyes. 'Surely that must mean…' she glanced over to Ron's body.

'Roda's a Time Lord. Or Lady? I don't know what they call the female ones. Time Lords can regenerate when their old bodies can't be repaired. That's how they live so long.'

'The Doctor said he was 900 years old…' mused Harry. He found thinking of these impossible things kept his mind off Ron.

'Shhh!' said Bree, or, Harry supposed, now Roda. Their whispered conversation had lasted longer then they'd thought. The Doctor's talk with the Daleks was coming to a close.

'I've told you,' he shouted, exasperatedly, 'the power's gone! The locket is just a locket, look!' And he pulled it out of his suit pocket.

'We can use the young Time Lord for our power. The casing does not matter to us. The Doctor and Roda went white, and Luke gulped and stepped closer to her.

'I'm warning you, Daleks,' the Doctor practically spat out. 'If you don't leave right now I will stop you.' A few Daleks moved back slightly at this vehement remark. If Harry didn't know better, he'd've said they were afraid. But surely robots couldn't have emotions?

'And what will you do to stop us? You have no weapons, no defenses, no plan!'

'You never have anything original to say, do you?'

'You will give us the Roda, or everyone will be exterminated,' the Dalek's voice sounded quite annoyed now.

'No.'

'Explain yourself!'

'I said, no.'

'What is the meaning of this negative?' The Dalek was definitely getting irritated.

'It means NO! You've had your chance. NOW!' The Doctor and Roda both pointed their sticks at the stone wall behind the Daleks. The end of the sticks glowed bright blue, a strange buzzing noise filled the room and the wall teetered ominously before falling on the Daleks.

'And that,' said Roda, flipping her stick into the air and catching it with one hand, before stowing it in her pocket, 'is how it's done.' Seeing Harry's confused face, she said 'Sonic screwdriver. Handy for putting up shelves…' she glanced at the remains of the wall, 'and putting down walls.' Then Luke gathered her up in a huge hug, and the Doctor joined in, and Harry turned his attention back to Ginny and Hermione, and tried desperately not to look at Ron's body, and the other unfortunate students who had been caught by the Dalek's gun. With a pang he saw Colin Creevey on the floor, his camera in hand. It looked as though he'd tried to take a picture of the Daleks and had got too close.

Harry looked back at the pile of rubble, apprehension growing in his stomach. Surely the Daleks couldn't have been defeated so easily. They'd looked like skilled killing machines to Harry. The Doctor was also watching the rubble.

'Everyone out now! Harry, is there anywhere that's safe for everyone to go?'

'The Room of Requirement is…'

'No no, that's on the seventh floor. If the Daleks blow up the castle it wouldn't be safe. They are only going to be stopped temporarily. The shields they have around their casings mean that the magic-imbibed rocks of this school will stick to them like…'

'Sand to wet skin,' said Roda, helpfully.

'Yes. To get rid of the rocks they will have to gather up their stored power and explode their shields. It'll leave them defenseless for a few seconds before they build it up again, but the time it'll take to build up the energy needed will take them quite a while.'

'How about the Chamber of Secrets?' chipped in Ginny. Her face was grey and she didn't look like her usual self, but Harry could see her determination in her eyes. 'It's below the lake, so if they did bomb the castle it wouldn't hurt. And they can only get in by speaking parseltongue.'

'Good idea. Can you take everyone, Ginny? Harry? We,' he gestured to himself, Roda and Luke, 'will try and extend the time stop to the TARDIS, so we can turn it off from there. We'll come and get you when we're done'

'FOLLOW US, EVERYONE!' yelled Ginny, and the talking stopped at once.

'Fetch Dumbledore!' the Doctor called after them, as he and Ginny started towards myrtle's bathroom, Hermione trailing listlessly behind the crowd. Those who could walk levitated those on stretchers, and it didn't take long to reach the bathroom. Disregarding the out of order sign, Ginny pushed trough the door and proceeded towards the sink with the snake carving.

'Oh no! I forgot! If Voldemort's dead, I won't be able to speak parseltongue any more,' said Harry, horrified.

'When Tom possessed me he left all sorts of information in my head. I can still speak it,' said Ginny, and she whispered '_open.' _With a grinding noise, the sink slid down, revealing a stone chute in the wall.

'I never knew that,' said Harry, amazed.

'Well, it's not something I really wanted to broadcast around, after what happened to you when everyone found out you spoke parseltongue,' said Ginny, matter-of-factly, and she started telling the students crowed round to slide down the chute.

Harry looked at Hermione, still staring listlessly at the wall, and marveled at the difference between the two girls. Hermione just gave up and retreated into melancholy, but Ginny kept herself busy with other things.

'Hermione, you stay here while Harry and I get Dumbledore,' said Ginny. Hermione seemed to shake herself out of her trance.

'NO! I want to help.'

'Who said you were coming?' Harry rounded on Ginny. 'You have to stay here and keep safe!'

'My brother just died Harry!' Ginny bellowed. 'I am NOT going to sit here and not know what's happening to you. I'm coming, Harry.'

'So am I,' said Hermione decisively. 'Megan?' she caught Megan Jones on the arm before she slid down the chute after Neville, whom she had just levitated down. 'Could you make sure everyone stays quiet and keeps together? Then you'll have less chance of the Dalek's finding you.' She nodded.

'I'll try, but I've never been much of an authority figure,' she said, and then she sat in the chute and pushed off with her hands.

'Let's go,' said Ginny. '_Close'. _ The sink slid back to its original place. The three of them ran up to the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office, only to find the gargoyle in pieces on the floor.

'Oh no,' whispered Hermione. They went slowly up the now still staircase and Harry gently pushed the door to Dumbledore's office, which was only on one hinge.

'Professor?' he called quietly. No answer. They all gasped as they entered the office.

Professor Dumbledore's once-immaculate office was completely trashed. The portraits were lying on the floor, ripped and torn with their frames broken, and some were hanging lopsided on the wall, the occupants cowering behind furniture in their pictures. Books lay everywhere with their pages scattered about the office. And slumped at the desk, lay the body of the headmaster. Harry was horrified to find he was almost hardened to death now. Things were happening so fast he didn't have time to grieve and mourn, and he was just carrying on.

'Let's go tell the Doctor,' whispered Ginny. Harry nodded jerkily and Hermione made a small squeaking sound, her face once more streaked with tears, creating lines over her face where they washed the dirt and dust and grime off her face. That's what would happen if I stopped to think about the deaths, Harry thought grimly. But he had to carry on. Like Ginny. He kept his eyes on Ginny's back all the way back to the Entrance Hall. She gave him strength.

They came hurtling down the marble staircase to find Luke, Roda and the Doctor working on a strange set of machinery with looks of concentration on their faces.

The Doctor looked up hopefully.

'Did you find him?' His grin petered out at he saw the looks on their faces. 'Ah well. It was too much to hope that they didn't find him.'

'Everyone's safe in the Chamber,' said Ginny.

'Good. That should keep them safe for the moment.'

'What are you doing?' asked Hermione.

'Stretching the Time stop so we can get to the TARDIS to concentrate it on the Daleks,' Roda explained. 'Right now it only extends to the castle, so we just need to expand it a couple of hundred metres.'

'Here,' said Luke, chucking Ginny, Harry and Hermione a gun. 'When the Daleks burst through we'll have a few seconds to take out as many as we can, before their shield come back online.'

'What if we don't kill them all?' asked Hermione, who seemed to have gained a bit of self control.

'Then we die, and the Daleks can take Roda and the Doctor and drain them of their life force. That should be quite a big incentive,' Luke said grimly.

'No, Luke, stop being such a pessimist. We throw this, which should take out a good half of them.' Roda held up something that, to Harry, looked like a huge grenade.

Feeling slightly more optimistic, Harry turned to face the pile of rubble, which had started to rumble ominously.

'Doctor!' cried Roda, 'It's time!' The Doctor was practically wrapped round the machine in the corner, one converse rested on the top as he held some wires between his teeth and fiddled with his sonic screwdriver.

'Try and hold them off for as long as possible!' he shouted slightly muffled.

Then the rubble exploded, and the Daleks were free. Harry shot as many as possible, but it didn't even seem to touch them.

'They've got their shields up already!' shouted Luke. Harry continued to fire, even though it had absolutely no effect. The front Dalek raised its gun, and pointed it over their heads.

'Exterminate!' The blue laser hit the wall behind them, which exploded, raining rubble and large chunks of rock. Harry lunged at Ginny, shoving her out the way, but the wall fell on them faster than he'd expected, and he knew no more.

**AN: Again, Harry's death was vital for the story. So please don't kill me! Just read on. Preferably with reviewing first. Thanks a lot,**

**Meg**


	14. Hermione and Ginny

**Chapter 14**

**Hermione and Ginny**

'Harry!' Ginny's piercing cry rattled Hermione down to her very core. Hermione glanced back. The falling wall had covered half of the entrance hall, as well as Harry and…

'LUKE!' Roda yelled, before hurling the grenade into the midst of the Daleks. There were a few tantalizing seconds as everyone's eyes in the room were glued to the small spinning ball, until there was a bright flash, and white fire rippled out over and around the Dalek's heads.

'They used a group shield,' the Doctor shouted. 'Now it's gone, you can shoot them!'

'FIRE!' cried Ginny. Hermione pulled the trigger on her gun and felt it jolt and shudder in her hands as it mowed down Daleks in front of her.

'It's working!' She shouted over the noise of the guns. Then the unthinkable happened. One Dalek raised its gun and pointed it at Ginny. Its voice couldn't be heard over the gunfire, but Hermione saw the two blue lights on its head flash, and the beam of light hit Ginny square in the chest. She fell to the hard stone floor, gun clattering down beside her.

Hermione had no room in her head for thoughts anymore. All that filled her brain that was once so packed with information was just filled with a never-ending agony. Everyone… dead. She couldn't cope, she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. The gun in her hand dropped to the floor and she stood in the middle of the room, completely still, as the sound of Roda's gunshots slowly petered to a halt as she ran out of bullets.

'RUN,' she screamed at Hermione, as she turned tail and fled out of the hall after the doctor. Hermione collapsed onto the floor, in a dead faint.

One thing Hermione never expected was to wake again. She'd expected maybe to find herself wherever the dead go, with Ron, Harry, Ginny and Luke. But she knew she wasn't dead; the pain all over was too great not to be real. The only thing that wasn't in tie with her conclusion was the face looking down at her, whispering her name.

'Hermione… Hermione…'

'Luke?' she said as she levered herself upright. 'You're not dead?'

'Shhh. Luckily not,' he said. 'I was in-between two rocks, and a larger one fell on top of them, so I survived.'

'What about Harry?' she asked, excitedly, looking around and expecting to see a mop of black hair and bright green eyes behind glasses. But Luke shook his head.

'No,' he whispered. 'He didn't make it.' Hermione felt another shard of her heart break off.

Hermione looked around for the first time. They were in the entrance hall, but were surrounded by rocks, with only a small gap to get out into the remainder of the hall.

'It's a sort of cave,' Luke answered her unasked question. 'This is how I survived. The Daleks are outside, trying to break through the great hall door. The Doctor and Roda sealed it. They thought we were all dead.'

'But… I collapsed,' Hermione said quietly.

'The Daleks were too busy following the Doctor and Roda. I managed to get you in here without them noticing. It's good they have such a limited radius, thanks to that eyestalk.'

'What do we do now?' whispered Hermione.

'Well… I haven't quite got to that bit yet,' Luke admitted, 'but we need to help the Doctor and Roda somehow.'

'What are they trying to do?' asked Hermione.

'The Doctor's plan was to focus the time lock they put on the castle on the Daleks and kill them there or something like that,' Luke replied. 'But to do that would take a lot of energy, which I don't think is exactly handy.'

'How are we supposed to help?' asked Hermione.

'Well, for starters, we need to get you down to the Chamber of Secrets,' said Luke.

'What? No!' protested Hermione. 'I can't just hide! The Daleks have killed my friends, Luke; I want to help kill them.'

'You need to go to the Chamber of Secrets, so as soon as the Doctor focuses the time stop on the entrance hall, where all the Daleks are, you can help them find a way out.'

'But there is no way out!' Hermione protested.

'There is one way,' said Luke firmly. 'Cast a bubble-head charm on everyone and blow a hole through the wall into the lake. Then make everyone swim up and escape into the forest. Hide out in there. It's not the best plan, but it will have to do, and I need you to lead them.'

Hermione struggled to find a hole in this plan.

'What are you going to do?' she asked Luke.

'I'm going to help Roda,' he said, and he held out a silver locket, 'by using my brain.'

The Doctor's converse trainers slipped on the grass as he and Roda ran full pelt towards the outside wall of Hogwarts boundaries. He had decided that going through the gates would be predictable, and he'd always fancied pole-vaulting over a high brick wall… without a pole.

He glanced back at Roda, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. He felt a tug on heart as he remembered the look on her face when Luke was covered by the falling rock. The Daleks had obviously learnt form their past mistakes. And the Doctor had learnt never to underestimate the Daleks. Well, he had learnt that before, but he always seemed to forget. Instead of letting their individual shields build up after blowing the rocks off, the Daleks had created a wider shield to cover all of them, which used less energy and was easier to charge quicker. It only took a few microseconds. Blowing this up had bought them some time, but they really had to dash. Luckily he'd remembered to seal the doors behind him, to give them a few extra minutes. They had to get to the TARDIS.

'Doctor!' yelled Roda, clutching a stitch in her side, 'we won't be able to get over the wall!'

'Jump!' he called back. Then he reached the wall, and propelled himself over… only to land on someone on the other side. Roda came over a few seconds after, and landed on a familiar man in a blue army coat and a cocky grin.

'Hello Doctor,' he said, smirking at him and lifting up Roda, 'nice of you to drop in.'

Hermione and Luke had slipped out from their hiding place and had sneaked around the back of the large group of Daleks, who were all gathered around the great hall doors. They were now running down the corridors to reach the girls bathroom that contained the Chamber of Secrets.

'Can you remember how you open it?' Luke asked Hermione. She frowned, thinking back to before, and the thought of Ginny hit her like a steel battering ram. She gasped and stopped.

'Oh, sorry,' said Luke, but Hermione gritted her teeth and shook her head.

'Yes.'

'Pardon?'

'Yes I can remember,' she said confidently. She had to be strong, for all of their sakes.

'Right. I have to leave you here,' said Luke, turning round and grabbing her shoulders. 'You can remember what to do?' Hermione nodded.

'Good,' he said, before sprinting off in the direction of the stairs. Hermione wondered where he was going, and what he was going to do. He seemed to have a plan. She continued towards the bathroom, but stopped dead when she heard the whirring noise of a Dalek behind her, and its metallic voice.

'Hu-man found in the up-stairs corr-i-dor.'

Hermione realized she'd been spotted, so she raced towards the out-of-order bathroom quicker than before. When she got there she repeated the strangled hissing noise Ginny had uttered before, and she pushed off down the slide with her hands, hearing the toilet slide back into place behind her. When she reached the main chamber of the underground hideout, she was met by Megan.

'What's happening up there? Where are the others?'

'We need to get out of here,' Hermione told her briskly. She cast sonorous on herself and spoke to the Chamber at large.

'Everyone please cast bubble-head charms on themselves and those who cannot do it themselves. Everyone must be charmed within the next five minutes. Once this is done, cast as many reducto spells as you can at the ceiling. This will fill the Chamber with water as we are under the lake. Then everyone must swim up to the surface of the lake and run immediately into the forest. Those who are injured must be helped. Is that clear?'

The crowd of students and teachers said nothing, so Hermione waved her arms at them impatiently.

'Well, go on! Get moving! The Daleks will find us soon!' There was a flurry of movement as everyone started to cast the charm. But the crashing sound of the toilet and chute being destroyed told Hermione they didn't have much time. She turned to Megan.

'When everyone's charmed, I want you to reducto the ceiling. Escape into the forest, stay hidden. Got me?' Megan nodded, but looked at her, concerned.

'What about you?' she asked, chewing a strand of her brown hair nervously.

'I'm going to hold them off,' Hermione said, sounding braver than she felt. As she turned to leave she felt a hand catch her shoulder.

'Thank you,' Megan whispered, and Hermione nodded, and set off before tears threatened to escape.

She found the Daleks at the bottom of the chute. They'd blown a hole in the wall of the toilet and levitated down. She watched the four robots from behind a lump of rock that appeared to have fallen down from the explosion.

'Sev-eral hu-mans det-ec-ted in sub-terr-an-e-an cham-ber,' one said in its annoying tinny voice.

'Pre-pare for mass ex-ter-min-a-tion,' said another. Hermione shuddered, and pointed her wand at the rocky ceiling of the passage to the rest of the chamber.

_Reducto, _she thought, and she put the power of her grief for Harry, Ron and Ginny behind her spell. The resulting crack startled the Daleks, as their eyestalks moved alarmingly fast. The tumbling rocks blocked off the passage, but unfortunately left Hermione stuck in with them.

'Who is res-pon-sib-le for this?' one screeched, waving its appendages wildly. Hermione took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind the rock.

'Me,' she said. One Dalek raised its gun.

'Ex-ter-min-ate.' But Hermione Granger died with a smile on her face, as before she lost all thought and feeling, she heard the sound of rushing water from the chamber behind her. _They had escaped. _ And she was going to Ron…

**AN: Tell me what you think! Keep reading and reviewing!**

**Meg**


	15. Roda

**Chapter 15**

**Roda**

'Captain Jack Harkness,' the Doctor said, delightedly. 'What are you doing here? How did you get into the time stop?'

'We used energy from the rift,' he replied, helping Roda up. 'Fried all our equipment, but we'd registered abnormal amounts of energy in it and couldn't not do anything. And who are you?'

'Rodageitmososangsulves,' she gasped, still clutching her side.

'Roda, my little sister,' the Doctor told a bemused Captain.

'I thought all your family died in the Great Time War…' Jack tailed off. 'That's great, Doctor!'

'Isn't it?' the Doctor smiled. Seeing Captain Jack helped him forget all the death and disaster he'd just been running from. Then he heard the great hall doors blow.

'Right, the Daleks are coming now! We need to get to the TARDIS!' The Doctor started running, followed closely by Roda, Captain Jack and two others that the Doctor recognized from Torchwood.

'Daleks? Here? I thought they'd all died?' Jack said.

'Well, these came straight from the great war, through time and space,' the Doctor explained. Jack groaned.

'I hate those things. They were the first ones to kill me, you know.' Roda was slightly confused by this remark.

'The first to kill you?' she queried, 'You mean you've been killed since then? You look very human to me.'

'I can never die,' said Jack, succinctly. Roda opened her mouth to question him further, but the Doctor decided that they needed more energy to run than to speak.

'Jack, tell her after this whole ordeal. We need to get to the TARDIS now, and we can't let the Daleks get there first. It'll give you an incentive to stay alive, Roda.'

'Great, thanks,' she muttered, but she focused her energy into keeping up with the longer-legged men. The two torchwood members were following close behind, and Jack laughed out loud.

'I've missed this, Doctor,' he grinned. But there was no time to reply for the Doctor as they were now at the TARDIS.

'Everyone in!' he ordered, holding open the doors and standing back as they all ran in one by one. Finally he stepped in behind them and closed the door.

'Ok, we've got some time before the Daleks discover how to get in here. What I thought we could do is…'

'Try and focus the time stop on the Daleks? Nope, won't work,' said Captain Jack. The Doctor looked up at him, desperation clear in his features.

'The time stop wouldn't be able to kill them, but it could hold them in limbo for a while…'

'Come on Doctor, you're grasping at straws. You know there won't be enough energy to hold that time stop in such a small area for such a long time! The best we'd get would be about three seconds! And then what?'

'I don't have any other option, Jack,' the Doctor said, his eyes pleading now. 'We have to make this work.'

'All we need is more energy,' Roda said thoughtfully, 'and then we can hold the time stop. If you,' she indicated Jack, 'go in with the Daleks in the time stop and blow them up, we don't need longer than five minutes.'

'But we only have a very short time span, and limited energy from the TARDIS,' said Captain Jack, 'And the energy from the Daleks is most likely encrypted, so we won't be able to get to it.'

'We could, if we had more time,' mused Gwen, who was part of the Torchwood team.

'I can give you a few minutes,' Roda said, firmly. 'The Daleks were going to use me as a power source; why can't we?'

'Because it will kill your consciousness,' the Doctor argued, 'and then you'll just be a body of Time Lord energy! We won't be able to get you back. You'd die, the same as if we shot you and you couldn't regenerate.'

'Not if we only take a little,' Roda argued, but Ianto, another member of the Torchwood team, chipped in.

'I'm sorry for interrupting, but is there any way that you could take the energy out naturally, so it wouldn't drain you if we use it?' Jack looked puzzled, but Roda and the Doctor both broke into grins.

'Well done, Ianto,' said the Doctor. 'What a brilliant idea! It's almost something I could have come up with!'

'Modesty didn't come as part of the package deal with you, did it?" Roda said to the Doctor. 'By the way, I love your accents. It's Welsh, yes?' Both Gwen and Ianto nodded, speechless.

'Well then,' said the Doctor, stretching his hands out and clicking his joints, 'let's get cracking! Ha! A chemistry joke! And people say scientists are boring!'

'Ha, ha,' said Roda sarcastically, but she smiled at the Doctor. She couldn't escape the sadness of watching Luke being buried by rocks, but she tried to focus on the job at hand; it help dull the aching sense of loss in her chest. Everything was happening so fast she hadn't had time to stop and think about what had actually happened, but she knew that if she faltered, she would break down. _And we really don't need that now, _she thought.

Something was nagging at the back of her mind, though. The Doctor seemed set on this particular plan, not even thinking of a back-up, even when it was doubtful that it would even work. There must be an answer he didn't want to solve the problem with, something that would cause someone pain, maybe even him. Roda knew that the Doctor wasn't a self-centered person, but she also knew that he had lost many of his companions recently, and he would try anything not to lose her, his one remaining family. _It must be something really obvious, _she thought. But however hard she thought, an answer didn't come.

_Focus, _she thought, and she managed to keep her mind on what she was trying to do for the better half of a minute, before a robotic voice came from outside the TARDIS.

'The Doc-tor, the Ro-da, we or-der you to come out or we will shoot the hu-man male.' Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and looked towards the double doors.

'The human male?' Roda whispered, hope rushing through her head. 'Is it possible…?' Before anyone could stop her, she began to run outside.

'RODA!' the Doctor called, lunging to catch her, and missing. He then ran after her and almost crashed into her back as she stopped dead just after flinging the TARDIS doors open. The sight before had made her heart jump into her throat.

'Luke…' she choked out, for there, in front of a Dalek's gun, stood the very person she believed dead. The Doctor sighed.

'They caught you, then?' he said, and Luke looked annoyed.

'Yes,' he hissed, kicking the floor with one toe. But then he brightened. 'The others got out ok, though. Hermione saw to it.'

Roda was still staring at him, unable to move or make a sound.

'You're… not… dead,' she managed to get out. Luke looked confused.

'The Doctor knew I wasn't dead. He was the one who told me to stay behind to help the students to escape and to get an energy source from the Room of Requirement. Unfortunately,' he said, glaring at the Daleks, 'they caught me before I could get there.'

'Stop comm-un-i-ca-ting,' screeched one Dalek, waving its plunger in the air.

'Give us the fe-male Time-Lord in re-turn for the hu-man boy,' said the DALEK that held Luke at gun(whisk)point. Roda stepped forwards, despite Luke's vigorous head-shaking at the Doctor behind her holding her shoulder. She had had a blinding flash of an idea, and she knew the only plan that would work.

'Ok. I surrender, but hand him over first,' she said, pointing at Luke.

'Roda, they'll…' Luke protested, but he was silenced by the Dalek.

'How do we know that you will keep your pro-mise?' A Dalek said.

'I swear on my honour as a Lord of Time,' Roda replied, one hand over each heart, in a cross across her chest.

'Ver-y well,' said a Dalek. 'The hu-man male is free to go.' Luke ran forwards, and Roda hugged him tightly.

'I know what I'm doing,' she whispered in his ear, and then she said two words that told him exactly what she planned. 'Paradox machine.' Then she released him and walked towards the Daleks.

'There you go; I'm yours.' She said. A Dalek moved in front of her.

'Kneel,' it commanded. Roda did so, glancing at Luke with an encouraging smile. Then the Dalek connected the black sucker-like arm with her head, and Roda felt her vortex energy being drained out of her. It was dying very slowly, piece by piece. She may have been screaming, but she couldn't tell anything beyond the unbearable pain, before it finally, blessedly, stopped, and her brain shut down.

**AN: You know the drill by now… read and review! The end is in sight, people!**

**Meg**


	16. The Answer to the Paradox

**Chapter 16**

**The answer to the Paradox**

Luke wanted to turn away, but his eyes seemed magnetized to Roda as her Time Lord life force was removed. The spine-chilling, unearthly scream didn't help much. It seemed to last forever, but finally the Dalek drew away and Roda slumped to the floor. It was only then that Luke could pull his eyes away.

'In the TARDIS, quick!' shouted the Doctor, and he dragged Luke behind him. The doors to the machine slammed shut as soon as he was through, as though anxious to keep them all safe. Then there was silence.

Nobody spoke. The Doctor looked as though he had been destroyed from the inside, Captain Jack's eyes were wet and the two torchwood members were in shock.

'Doctor,' Jack said, but the Doctor pulled away from his hand and forced himself upright.

'We need to stop them,' he said, in a voice that terrified Luke, even though he was in no danger from the Doctor.

'We don't have any power though…' Jack protested, but the Doctor held up his hand.

'We've still got a time lord and a genius; we can still do the time stop.'

'Well then, people,' Jack said, clapping his hands. 'We've got a lot to do and very little time before the Daleks break into the TARDIS. Let's get a move on.'

Immediately Gwen and Ianto began scurrying around, and even the Doctor began to press some buttons dejectedly. But Luke stayed where he was.

'No,' he said quietly. No one so much as glanced in his direction.

'Stop,' he said a little louder, his voice ringing in the circular room. Everyone stopped.

'There's a way, Doctor, of saving everyone,' Luke said. 'Roda told me before she died. You know there is.'

'There isn't,' the Doctor cried, 'She's wrong.'

'No she isn't. We can make it so that this never happened, so that nobody died,' Luke said, earnestly.

'You mean go back in time and stop the Doctor from coming here?' asked Jack, confused. 'But we're in a time stop! We can't travel anywhere except inside the walls, and they only just cover Hogwarts and the TARDIS! We saw it on the monitors.'

'No, not back in time, Jack,' said the Doctor, and then he stopped, as though confused. 'Hang on a minute, if this is a time stop, how did the students escape into the forest?'

'That proved my theory, and Roda's. They escaped into the forest because this whole thing is a paradox! Doctor, you know this was never meant to happen. You should have never appeared, and all these people shouldn't have died. Harry, Ron, Ginny, and most probably Hermione too. You've seen the future of this world, you know they play a vital part in it, so there is _no way they could have died,_' Luke said, forcefully.

'You mean this is a paradox?' asked Jack, excitement lighting his eyes. The Doctor stood with his hands on the console, his head down.

'The year that never was,' he said, not looking at anyone. 'The Master turned the TARDIS into a Paradox machine, which rewound time when destroyed so the paradox never happened. The Toclafane couldn't have come to Earth without a paradox machine, because they were the descendants from those on earth and if they killed them they would not exist…'

'So to come here, the Dalek's must have used a paradox machine…' mused Gwen, who had now stopped whatever she had been doing on a Torchwood laptop and had all her attention on the Doctor.

'No,' said the Doctor firmly. 'They weren't the first to come.'

'Then it was the Sontarans!' Luke exclaimed. Then he frowned. 'But they aren't as technologically advanced…'

'It was me,' the Doctor said, his voice breaking. 'I was the first to come, to set the timeline out of sync. I brought Bree, and then I brought you, Luke. And Bree brought the Sontarans, who brought Roda. It's a long chain, a chemical reaction, all leading down to death.'

'But you crash-landed!' Luke protested. 'You didn't construct a paradox machine on purpose!'

'I didn't,' the Doctor said, grimly, finally raising his head from the console, 'but the TARDIS did. When she was parked in Egham she drew Bree towards her, and kept her hidden from me. Then she crash-landed in Hogwarts. The TARDIS turned herself into the paradox machine, so we could stay here, in Hogwarts.'

'But why?' asked Jack. 'Why Hogwarts?'

'Hogwarts is safe, well protected. The TARDIS saw it as a haven, a place for me to relax without worrying.' The Doctor sighed and stroked the console. 'But everything went horribly wrong.'

'What I don't understand,' said Gwen, slowly, 'is why the… err… TARDIS brought you here and turned into a paradox machine in the first place?' The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but a loud bang came from outside at that very moment and everyone in the TARDIS were flung to the ground.

'Ouch,' muttered Luke, as he heaved himself up.

'The Daleks,' whispered Ianto, his face as pale as death. 'They're coming.'

'We don't have long,' said the Doctor. 'The only way to stop all this is to break the paradox machine, and time will rewind to before. I didn't want to do this before because I would lose Roda and…' the Doctor gulped, 'The TARDIS might not survive.' There was silence, before Gwen spoke up, her voice strong.

'It's the only thing left to do. We have a chance to save everyone who died, and we must.' These words seemed to snap everyone out of it.

'Right, Doctor, what do we do?' barked Jack.

'Everyone try and contact the TARDIS with their minds,' he shouted, as more explosions and bangs came from outside, rocking the TARDIS more. 'Maybe we can get her to break it!'

Luke screwed up his face, and concentrated on sending his thoughts towards the TARDIS. _We need to break the Paradox machine; we need to break the paradox machine… _The booms and crashes from outside made it hard to hear anything at all, and Luke felt his ears pop.

The there was a complete, sudden, silence, as though everything had suddenly stopped, and a bright light burnt Luke's eyelids. He opened his left eye a crack, and then opened both his eyes wide, amazed. Part of the console had lifted, revealing a bright white light, and an ethereal voice echoed in his mind.

_**I will break the paradox machine, Doctor and children of time, if that is what you wish.**_

Luke realized it was the TARDIS speaking. The voice was neither male nor female, though the Doctor always referred to the TARDIS as a she.

'Wait!' the Doctor called out to the TARDIS, as a wind started up and whistled through their ears. 'Why did you bring me here?'

_**You were dying, from despair and loneliness and loss. I brought you here to keep you safe, my Doctor.**_

The Doctor remembered when Rose and spoken those same words, and he realized who really kept him going through everything he did. The TARDIS had saved him more times than he could remember, from Bad Wolf to giving him a way to run when he needed to escape, both from deadly enemies and what he himself had done and left behind.

'Thank you', he whispered, as the howling wind increased because the TARDIS was breaking the paradox machine it had built in its very heart. The wind built up into a crescendo, and Luke curled into a ball on the wire mesh floor, his hands over his ears, when a voice spoke.

_**You are the key, Luke Smith. You will remember everything, so this will not be forgotten. Even the Doctor will forget. Remember, Luke Smith.**_

Luke knew that only he could hear, so he nodded, and before the world faded to darkness around him, he thought, _I will remember._

**AN: It's so near the end now, I'm so excited. The last chapter, and then I can start on the sequel! Which I already have plans for. So read and review, for the penultimate time in this story!**


	17. The Time that never was

**Last chapter. The end is nigh, readers. I hope you enjoyed this story, which was my first ever fanfiction, and so holds a special place in my heart. ****This is my favourite chapter, by far, so enjoy!**

**Chapter 17**

**The Time that never was**

Luke woke up when the front door banged shut. He jumped, sending his book to the floor with a loud clatter. He laughed at himself. He must have fallen asleep while he was reading. This was a strange thing in itself. He _never _fell asleep while reading.

'Luke, I'm home! Any visitors?' called his mum, Sarah Jane, as she headed straight for the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. Luke opened his mouth to say no, when he stopped suddenly. That couldn't be right, could it? The Doctor had come through the fireplace, asking for his help… then everything came rushing back.

'_It's not your mum I need. It's you.'_

'_You still haven't told me your name.'_

'_It's Bree.'_

'_You're going to be my project. We'll have you skating if we have to practice all winter.'_

'_This, my dear friends, is a book.'_

'_Yes, I think we'd got that far already.'_

'_Don't leave me!'_

'_You're very quiet, Luke. I thought you fancied Bree?' _

'_I do. I just don't know what to do now.'_

'_If she gets back her Time Lord self, she won't be Bree anymore. She'll be someone else. The Time Lord she used to be. Not Bree the human.'_

'_My name is Rodageitmososangsulves, but you can call me Roda. Most people do.'_

'_Of course, you regenerated! And you stayed the same!' _

'_Not exactly. I now have a small mole on my left ear.'_

'_Paradox machine.'_

_I WILL REMEMBER_

'Luke?' Sarah Jane walked into the lounge, and found Luke on the floor, clutching his head as a whirl of memories and emotions overtook him. Then, suddenly, it stopped, and went as quickly as it had come. Except now he remembered. All of it.

'I'm fine,' he said, smiling at his mum. 'I just had a bit of a headache, that's all.'

'Ok,' she said, not entirely convinced. Luke really hoped she'd leave it at that. He would tell her someday… but not yet. He felt that if he remembered too much, he would miss them all too much. Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Bree… and Roda. All of whom had died, but were now alive. And the cruelty of the universe meant he would likely never see them again, and if he did, by chance, meet them in the street, they would not remember.

'Would you like a cup of tea?' she asked him, and Luke sighed, glad she had let it go for once. He would tell her, but today didn't seem right.

'Yes please,' he said, and she bustled off into the kitchen, calling behind her,

'I'll get the nice biscuits out, shall I?'

Hermione woke with a start, tears coursing down her cheeks. Disorientated for a few seconds, she climbed out of bed and lit her wand, much to the annoyance of her fellow roommates, who all groaned at her to turn it off. Then she stopped, took a few deep breaths, and looked around.

It had been a dream? It had felt so real. Hermione was sure that losing Ron, Harry and Ginny had been just as painful as if she had in real life. Maybe she was in heaven? But it looked an awful lot like her dormitory.

She glanced at Lavender, asleep on the bed next to hers, snoring softly. Hermione was so happy to see her alive and well she forgot for a few seconds that she was going out with Ron. Then she remembered. If none of… _that_ had ever happened, Lavender _was _still going out with Ron. Hermione decided, after the brief moment of happiness at her not being dead, that she didn't like her anymore.

Hermione couldn't get back to sleep, so she put on her dressing gown and padded down the stairs to the girls dormitory until she reached the common room. A small figure with blazing red hair was already sitting in an armchair, staring into the fire. Hermione approached her cautiously.

'Ginny? Are you ok?' Ginny turned around, and nodded, Hermione could see dried tear tracks on her face.

'I had the most horrible dream,' she started, and then she stopped. 'Well, it started out all right, and then it went completely downhill. I was going out with Harry, and you were going out with Ron, and everything was perfect…' Ginny screwed up her face, as though struggling to remember something, 'and there were other people, but I just can't remember…' Hermione struggled to remember her dream, and sure enough, there were three faceless figures, two about their age, one older beyond anything Hermione had ever known, who, the more she tried to remember, the more they slipped away.

'And then Ron died, and Harry, and you…' Hermione trailed off, as a confused look appeared on Ginny's face.

'And then me,' Hermione whispered.

'You had the same dream?' Ginny exclaimed. Then she screwed up her face again, as though trying to remember more.

'No, don't try,' said Hermione, putting her hand out. 'The more you try to bring it up, the more you'll forget. Just leave it, and we'll remember someday.' Ginny nodded, and the two girls sat in the common room, staring at the fire, until light started to appear through the windows.

Up in the sixth year boy's dormitory, Harry jerked awake, breathing heavily and sweating. He sat upright for a few seconds when he realized he couldn't remember what his dream had been about. All he knew was that it had been awful. He lay down again, and settled himself back in bed.

Little did he know that just before he'd woken up Ron had twitched, yelled out loud, then turned and continued to snore.

Captain Jack groaned and rolled over, promptly falling out of his office chair. That woke him up fully, and he promised himself he would get himself a proper bed and never sleep in his chair again. He made this promise to himself every morning.

He ran his tongue around his teeth, and grimaced at the taste of old coffee. Taking a long draught of water from a plastic canteen in his desk (old army issue) he slammed out of his office with his old coffee cup, looking for either Ianto or the coffee machine.

All of a sudden he remembered the dream he'd been having. Not all of it, but some bits just came rushing back. He was, in fact, so surprised he dropped his mug, which promptly shattered on the floor.

'Damn it!' he shouted, as the noise had snapped him out of whatever it was he had been in and he could not remember a single thing about his dream.

'When the others get here,' he hissed from between his teeth as he marched off to find a dustpan and brush to clear up the broken china, 'I'm going to get them to buy carpets for the whole hub, so that breaking coffee cups will not cause vital information to just go swirling down the drain!' He found the dustpan and swept up the mug violently, banging the brush against the pan quite unnecessarily, before dumping the china unceremoniously into the bin.

But by the time the others arrived, looking like they'd all had a bad night's sleep, Jack had completely forgotten about his dream and the cup, so when Gwen found her favourite coffee mug in the bin later on, Jack had no clue how it had gotten there, even though Gwen insisted that he had it last.

The Doctor woke up sprawled on his chair in the TARDIS. The machine's constant humming comforted him as he tried to remember the dream he had. It had felt very real, and he was sure he'd left someone very important behind…

But try as he might, he couldn't remember who it was.

_Definitely a dream, _The Doctor thought as he got up, stretched and started fiddling with the TARDIS console. _Everyone important to me is lost now._

He started feeling the same ache of loss, but the humming from the TARDIS grew louder, almost as though it was comforting him.

'I'll always have you, old girl,' he crooned, as he fiddled with the screen 'Ooh, Felspoon, now there's a place we haven't been in a while. D'you remember that? Mountains swaying in the breeze?' he said softly, before suddenly jumping into action. 'Felspoon, here we come!' And the TARDIS whined and groaned away from the dark, misty street where a young girl was running for her life. She heard the strange noise and followed it, scrambling up the stairs to a large building that appeared to her out of the fog, and she stumbled through the double doors into a police station.

Where just moments before the TARDIS had been parked in front of.

-ends-

**Optional ending… (Not really sure I like this much, but whatever. I****t is a bit pathetic, but to read the sequel you have to read this first. Your choice.)**

Luke was walking by his own in the park, and the leaves, which had been brown and gold when he'd woken up from that time paradox, were now small buds of green on the branches.

He passed the children's playground and heard them laughing and screaming as they clambered on the frames and swung on the swings. He smiled ruefully. Sometimes he wished he'd had a proper childhood, but right now he knew he wouldn't swap his life for anyone else's. Yes, he was too clever and had to hide it, and his lack of a belly button made it hard to have fun at public swimming pools. But if he hadn't been who he was, he would never have met Roda.

He was torn from these thoughts, ones that he had almost everyday, when he heard a squeal of brakes come from the road that ran parallel to the small park, and lots of shouting and yelling. As he ran closer, he heard an angry voice complaining.

'How is it my fault? She just stepped into the road!'

'You should have been watching where you were going!' yelled a woman's voice, high and shrill.

'It's fine, Aunt, I'm ok,' said another voice, one that Luke recognized. His heart leaped into his throat as he ran out the park gate and saw what had happened. A large moving lorry was parked outside a house that had recently come on for sale, on the road near his. A van was skidded sideways in the middle of the road, with a growing line of cars behind it, and a balding man was shouting angrily at a sharp-looking woman who was clutching the shoulder of a girl who looked about 16. She had a large gash across one cheek but was otherwise unharmed, but Luke stopped dead at the sight of her.

It was Roda. Well, Bree. But she looked exactly the same age as she had when he'd met her at Hogwarts, even though that wouldn't be for a few years, for her. But then she looked him dead in the eye, and he realized. This was Roda, and the shining silver locket around her neck was empty.

'She just stepped out from behind the lorry, I had hardly any warning…' the van driver kept shouting, but Roda had pulled herself from her aunt's grip and had ran over to Luke, throwing her arms around him.

'How…how did you…' he stammered, his mouth not yet connected to his brain, which had already worked it out.

'The Doctor,' she said simply, and he nodded and grinned.

'How did he remember?' Luke asked, curious.

'The TARDIS decided that he needed his family, so she took him to me, and he freed me and took me and my foster-aunt,' she gestured to the shrill woman still arguing with the van driver, 'back to moved here because of you.'

'Are you ok?' he asked, wiping some blood off her cheek.

'Yep. The van just clipped me and span me onto the ground. I keep forgetting that I can't really regenerate if people watch me die.' She grinned. 'I already did that once. Aunt Millie had to tell them they'd inhaled too many fumes.'

'Aunt Millie?' Luke asked, raising an eyebrow. 'What happened to Malice?' Roda shrugged.

'We made up. The Doctor visits me whenever he gets too lonely, and I think she has a bit of a crush on him,' she giggled.

'So, you're staying around now?' Luke asked.

'Staying around, going to your school… you won't be able to get rid of me,' she said.

'Have you remembered?'

'The Doctor opened my mind. I can remember everything. Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny will never remember,' she sighed, 'but at least they have each other. Now, I really do want to meet your mum.' Luke grinned and took her hand.

'This way.'

-ends-

**AN: And we have reached the end of the line, faithful readers. Keep posted for the sequel, but I'm preoccupied with the series **_**Merlin **_**at the moment, so it might be a while. Thanks for reading, and thanks to all those who reviewed. You've been, in the words of the Doctor, fantastic.**

**Meg**


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